Call of Duty: Schoolized
by Mangoesaregood8
Summary: What happens when the youngest member of the Task Force is still in school. Nothing good, please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

I was asleep in my bed. It was nice and warm, and I was very comfortable. That was when I felt someone shaking me awake.

"Come on kid, wake up. You've got school," I heard Captain Price yell.

"Ugh, I don't want to get up yet."

"Too bad. You're in the country, so you have to go to school. That was the agreement," Price said.

I groaned, but didn't move. Captain Price took my blanket and pulled it off of me.

"Don't make me go get Nikolai," Price said.

"Ok, ok I'm up," I said getting up. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I noticed that Price was trying to hold in a laugh.

"What are you laughing at?" I asked.

"Have you seen your hair?" Price asked me.

I rolled my eyes, grabbed my towel, and went into the bathroom. I fixed my hair and got dressed in my work clothes and walked down to the mess hall.

"Hey kid," Soap said when he saw me.

"Hey Soap," I said grabbing a bowl of cereal.

"Hang on a sec, your hair is sticking up," Soap said trying to flatten my hair.

"Good luck with that. I already used hair gel and it still won't stay down," I said.

"Yeah, I can tell," Soap said pulling his hand back and wiping the hair gel off of his hand.

I just laughed. I sat down next to Soap, and we ate breakfast. Soap was one of my best friends at the base. We could always find something to do.

"Hey my friend, save some for me," I heard someone with a Russian accent say behind me.

"Hey Nikolai," I said. I looked down at my plate. I had taken a lot of eggs.

"Sorry," I said. "Do you want some?" I asked.

"No, it is alright," Nikolai said grabbing some bacon and pancakes. "But you have to hurry if you don't want to be late for school."

"Ugh, I really don't want to go today," I complained. I had just gotten back from Pakistan, and I was tired and very sore.

"You know what Price would say," Nikolai said.

"Yeah, yeah, I know…"

I got up and went to go pack up my book bag. It sucked, because I was the only person on the Task Force in school. I was actually the only kid and the only girl. So when they didn't call me A.J. (Archer Junior, but that's another story I might write) they called me kid. I was cool with it though. I got my book bag, and my gun that I was supposed to carry around with me, and put my book bag in the hummer. Surprisingly, my school let me carry a gun. It probably had something to do with Captain Price having one out when he asked. SO I got a few extra rounds and some stun grenades. Price didn't trust me with frags, because he thought that someone might accidently pull the pin. He figured the worst a stun could do was stun me for a few seconds, so he let me carry those.

"Hurry up Megan, you're gonna be late," Ghost said. They only called me by my first name when they were annoyed.

"Coming Ghost," I said dragging my book bag behind me. My book bag was actually a suitcase, so it was a bit hard to drag down the stairs.

"Fix your hair," Ghost said. "You look a mess."  
"I used two handfuls of hair gel. It's not going to stay down," I said.

Ghost just sighed. He helped me get my suitcase/book bag into the humvee, and drove me to school.

"Soap's gonna pick you up later alright?" Ghost asked me.

"Car rider, right?" I asked hugging Ghost goodbye.

"Should be," Ghost said climbing back into the humvee. It looked like he was about to go back to sleep.

"Later Ghost," I said.

He waved bye and was gone. Little did I know that this day was going to be a far cry from any normal day. This day was going to be interesting, and test my skills like they have never been tested before.

_**Please read and Review to find out what happens on this not so normal school day.**_


	2. Chapter 2

I walked into homeroom.

"Megan!" Jackie screamed as she ran up and hugged me. I nearly fell, because she caught me off guard.

"Hey Jackie. You act like you haven't seen me in weeks," I said laughing.

"I haven't. You've been gone for two weeks," she said.

"Yeah, it was a rough mission. You wouldn't believe how many bullets I dodged," I told her. I could tell Jackie some of the less classified info, but no one else.

"How many?" She asked me putting her patrol belt on. It was bright orange so people could see it.

"Too many to count," I said. I would have put my belt on, but it didn't fit over my vest. I was noticeable, because I was the only kid there not wearing a uniform. It was also pretty funny, because the class I watched liked to call me squishy. It was different than the base. Lots more kids here.

The rest of my morning was about as normal as it could be. Third grade ambushed me with a hug, and I watched them until their teacher got there. I went to all of my morning classes, and had lunch. Only odd thing that happened was some of my friends getting detention for talking. I didn't blame them. They were trying to figure out where I had been and were telling me about everything I missed. I was trying to tell them that the teacher was watching them, but they didn't get the message. So I was missing some people at lunch. The endless amount of people surrounding me was starting to freak me out, because I was claustrophobic.

It was after lunch when things got weird. I was heading to the Hall to line up for P.E. when I heard a beep coming from my holster. I looked and it was my heart beat sensor. It had multiple white dots on it, and it kept beeping. I radioed Ghost, since he was the technology expert.

"Ghost, what does it mean when my heartbeat sensor starts beeping?" I asked through my comm.

"Nothing good," he said. "Why?"

"Cuz mine is beeping and it looks like there are 20 plus foot mobiles outside," I said slightly panicked.

"Don't let anyone go outside," Ghost said. "ETA is 25 minutes. Ghost out."

"No one go outside," I told my classmates. No one moved.

"I said line up by the door," My P.E. teacher said annoyed.

"No," I said, which startled him. Teachers obviously weren't used to being told no. "There is an enemy presence outside."

"What does that mean?" my teacher asked.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Not everyone was in the military. "It means that there are bad guys outside, and if we go anywhere near the doors, we would be shot dead. My team will be here in 20 minutes to evaluate the situation."

"A.J., this is MacTavish. Give me a SitRep," I heard Soap say through his comm. He still wasn't used to calling himself Soap yet.

"Hostile presence is detected outside. All children in my class are secure in the hall, but there are classrooms by the windows I can't check, because of exposure in the hallways. I haven't heard any gunshots or screaming yet," I responded.

"Stay where you are. If they come inside, get to cover as quickly as you can," Soap said.

"I don't think that's possible," I said.

"Uh… why not?" Soap asked clearly confused.

"Because they are already in the building," I said pulling out my G36C from its holster on my back and started shooting while running for cover.

My classmate had run into the library and hid in the bookshelves. It was better than nothing. This was going to be a tough battle. There were at least 15 hostiles in the Hall, and I was by myself. I ran behind the stage and threw a stun grenade into a group of hostiles. I waited for it to explode, and started shooting. I took out a group of 5 hostiles. I faintly heard Soap yelling at Nikolai telling him to move faster. I was the FNG of the group, so I knew Soap was worried.

I peaked around the corner of the backstage wall, and felt a bullet narrowly miss my head.

"Holy shit," I said as I pulled my head back around the corner. I reached for another stun grenade when I realized that I had I had left them in my desk. I felt so stupid. I reached my gun around the corner and sprayed some bullets. I heard another 2 hostiles go down, but this wasn't going to get me anywhere. They could replace the men I killed, while I couldn't. I hoped my team could hurry it up, but even if they had just got there, they still had to fight the hostiles outside, so I would still be alone. I looked around the corner again. There were more hostiles. I shot another 4 down, but another 5 came in.

"Where the hell are you guys?" I screamed into my comm. I was starting to freak out.

"ETA is 5 minutes my friend," I heard Nikolai say.

"Can't you fly any faster?" Soap and I asked at the same time.

"No, I am sorry my friend. This is as fast as my helicopter goes," Nikolai said apologetically.

_**Will back up come for A.J. in time for her to survive? Please read and review to find out.**_


	3. Chapter 3

"_Where the hell are you guys?" I screamed into my comm. I was starting to freak out._

"_ETA is 5 minutes my friend," I heard Nikolai say._

"_Can't you fly any faster?" Soap and I asked at the same time._

"_No, I am sorry my friend. This is as fast as my helicopter goes," Nikolai said apologetically._

I tried taking out some more hostiles when I heard sniper fire. I didn't feel any bullets whistle past me, so I kept firing until my mag ran out.

"Spread out," I heard Captain Price say over the comms. "We need to find A.J. alive."

That's when they pain started. I cried out and went backstage again. My shoulder was throbbing, and I could feel the blood gushing out of the wound.

"A.J., what's your status?" Price asked.

"I'm hit," I managed to get out in between gasps of pain.

"Can you still fight?" Price asked. He didn't want me to get overwhelmed with hostiles.

"I'm not sure. I was hit in the shoulder," I said as I tried moving my shoulder. I barely moved it an inch, and gasped in pain again.

"Crap, no I can't."

"Hurry up and secure the building," I heard Price say. I heard more people running through the Hall. I peeked around the corner, and saw the rest of my team running in and taking down hostiles.

"A.J., where are you?" Soap asked.

"I'm coming from back stage, do NOT shoot me." I said emphasizing the not part. I walked out from back stage with my gun in the air so they knew I wasn't trying to shoot them. I tried to hide my shoulder injury, but Ghost was quick to spot the blood.

"A.J., that looks pretty bad. We should get you back to base to examine it," he said concerned.

"I'll be fine," I said trying to shrug it off, but that just made the pain worse.

I looked around the Hall. There seemed to be at least 50 dead bodies, but none of them looked like they belonged to anyone from the team so I wasn't worried.

"Does anyone besides me wonder why there were this many…" I looked at the uniforms. "Russians sent to my school with the intent to kill me?"

"We'll figure this out at base. Get to the helicopter A.J.," Price said.

I turned for the door and went to the helicopter. It would be a relief to get off of my feet. When I got into the heli, Nikolai was sitting in the pilot seat. He took one look at me and said, "It must be hard for you to be 14 and be in the Task Force."

"Very hard," I said sitting down and leaning my head against the side of the heli.

"I feel bad and wish there was something I could do, but I do not know what," Nikolai said.

"Don't worry Nikolai. I'll be fine," I said as the rest of my team got into the heli. Ghost sat next to me and started to pay some attention to my shoulder.

"It looks pretty bad. You need to take your vest off so I can look at it," Ghost said.

I tried to take my vest off over my head, but it hurt my shoulder too much.

"I can't get it off," I told Ghost.

"Do you want me to cut it off?" Ghost asked.

This was my only bullet proof vest. They didn't have many that fit me.

"No thanks," I said trying to squirm out of my vest again. Ghost helped me get it over my head. I nearly yelled in pain, but I managed to hold it in.

"You alright?" Ghost asked me.

"Do I look alright? I have a hole in my shoulder!" I exclaimed.

Ghost didn't say anything. He just slipped my shirt over my shoulder and got out some gauze to clean the blood off of my shoulder. He took out his knife, sanitized it, and cut the skin around the bullet a little wider so he could pull it out. Ghost tried once to get the bullet out, and that's when I blacked out.


	4. Chapter 4

When I woke up, I was on a nice warm bed.

_I must be home. In bed. It was all just a bad dream_ I thought to myself.

That's when I felt the pain. It was awful. I tried to sit up, but I felt some one push me back down.

"Stay down kid. You need to let that shoulder heal," I heard someone say.

I tried to open my eyes, but they felt like they were made of lead. I kept trying until I could open them. My vision was really blurry. I kept blinking until I had figured out who was at my bed side.

"Soap?" I managed to say, but my speech was slurred and my voice hoarse, so I don't know if he understood me.

"Yeah kid. It's me." I heard Soap say.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"You're in the hospital kid. You passed out when Ghost tried to take the bullet out of your shoulder. It got stuck in the bone, but they did surgery and its out now," Soap told me.

"My shoulder hurts like hell," I said.

"Do you want more morphine?" Soap asked.

I shook my head, which hurt my shoulder. "I don't want to go back to sleep.

"I'm not going to make you. It was just a question."

I was silent.

"Are you feeling alright?" Soap asked reaching for my forehead to see if I had a fever.

"Yeah, I just don't like sitting in bed all day," I said, and it was true. I may have liked sleeping in, but once I was awake, I wanted to go do something. Now I wouldn't be able to move around for a while.

"At least it's better than when you first joined," Soap said.

"Yeah, it was pretty bad back then."

"How come you joined so young?" Soap asked me. I hadn't really told anyone why I was in the Task Force as 14.

_Flashback_

I was in a court room. My heart was thundering in my chest. Today would change the rest of my life forever.

"What's going on?" I asked my lawyer.

"They are deciding on the verdict," He said. "If they find your parents guilty, they might send them to jail."

"And if they are innocent?" I asked.

"They most likely won't be," He said.

I sighed. If they found my parents guilty, I would get in trouble too. I really didn't like my parents, and this just intensified the dislike.

"I find the family guilty and will be punished as such. All immediate family members above the age of 18 will continue work with no leave, and with no pay" The judge said.

I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding.

"Megan," She said since she knew my name, "will have to perform service until all of the debt has been paid. You will be enlisted in the military."

I gasped.

"I'm sorry your Honor, did you just say that I'm going to be enlisted in the military?" I asked.

"Yes. Would you rather go to jail?" She asked me.

"No your Honor," I said.

"Then it's settled," the judge said hitting her gavel on the table.

My lawyer led me out of the court room, and I never saw my parents again after that.

_End of Flashback_

"Whoa," Soap said after I finished my story. "You joined just to pay off your family's debt?"

"It was that or jail, and the judge was actually kind of nice. I saw her afterward and she told me this would be the fastest way to pay it. I didn't have a job and she wasn't going to stick me with something I didn't like. She knew I had some interest in the military, so she enlisted me."

Soap was silent, and Captain Price walked in.

"Hey kid. Nice to see you're awake," He said.

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"You were in and out for about a day," Price said.

I didn't say anything. I rolled over onto my good side.

"How long until I can get out of here?" I asked.

"Later today, maybe early tomorrow," Soap said.

"Will I have to go to school tomorrow?" I asked.

"Nope. Your school is closed for the rest of the week," Soap said.

I smiled. I could finally get some sleep.

"But the Task Force has to do the clean up," Soap said.

I groaned. Task Force had to do everything these days. I guess it was fair since the Task Force took out all those people.

I started to get up, but Soap pushed me back down.

"Oh no you don't. You're not getting up yet."

"Let go of me Soap," I demanded. I was going to get up and walk around, and no one was going to stop me.

"No. You need to stay in bed and rest up so you can get better," Soap said as he held me to the bed.

I glared daggers at Soap and he looked down. No one was able to look me back when I was glaring except for Captain Price.

"Let. Go," I said the words spaced out.

Soap slowly let go of me. I slowly and painfully got up and walked out of the room.

"Where do you think you're going," Price asked me.

"I'm going to walk around. I don't like staying in one place," I said leaving the hospital to walk around the base.


	5. Chapter 5

I wasn't sure where I was going to go with my new found freedom. I first headed to my bed to get changed into some real clothes. It hurt to pull my shirt over my head, but I managed. Then I headed down to the target range to see who was there. I saw Ghost shooting an ACR with an ACOG sight.

"Hey Ghost," I said when he took a break from shooting.

"Hey mate. Nice to see you up and about. Shouldn't you be in bed though?" He asked.

"I didn't feel like laying around and doing nothing, so I came out here," I replied as I grabbed the Silenced M14EBR that was sitting next to Ghost.

"I know you're not thinking about shooting that," Ghost said. I could tell he was thinking about whether or not he should just take it from me.

"No, just looking. I'm not stupid Ghost," I said setting the rifle down lightly. I sighed. I was pretty bored.

Ghost set down his ACR. "What do you want?" he asked.

"I want to do something, but I don't know what," I complained.

"Do you like ice cream?" Ghost asked me completely off subject.

"Yeah… Why?" I asked.

"I was just wondering if you would like to get some," Ghost said.

"Am I allowed to eat ice cream?" I asked. It seemed like I wouldn't be able to do much of anything. The Task Force wanted me to heal as fast as possible so I could be back on the field.

Ghost rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. He started walking towards the Mess Hall and I followed him. Ghost walked over to the ice cream machine, got two cones, swirled vanilla ice cream into them, and handed me one.

"Thanks," I said licking mine.

"You're welcome," Ghost said.

We went and sat at an empty table.

"We're going to keep you busy with something, so you don't do anything stupid while you heal," Ghost said teasingly.

"I hope you don't mean paper work," I said.

"I how you and paper work don't mix. I'm not stupid," Ghost said. He had already eaten half of his ice cream. I was going slow so I wouldn't get a brain freeze.

"We'll probably just have someone babysit you for a while. Last time we left you alone when you were injured; you kept getting up and walking around. You pulled your stitches twice."

I looked away.

"Yeah, we haven't forgotten that yet."

Soap walked into the Mess Hall and sat next to me.

"Hey, that's not fair, I want some ice cream," he complained.

I laughed. I had already finished my ice cream, but was still holding the cone.

"Machine's over there," I said pointed. Soap just laughed.

"So what are we going to do with this one?" Ghost asked gesturing in my direction.

"Good question. She should only be out of commission for about 2 days. Anyways, Shepherd's got a new mission for us," Soap said informing his second in command.

"Where are we going?" Ghost asked.

"Brazil," Soap answered.

"What are we doing sniffing around down south? Something happen down there?" I asked.

"Well we got word of an arms dealer, and we know that he's been supplying a terrorist," Soap informed us.

"When do we leave?" I asked. I wanted to be part of this, and I just wanted to go to Brazil. I heard they had some awesome coffee down there.

"We'll be leaving in three days. The local militia down there is stirring up some trouble as well, so we have to stop that.

I sighed. I had also heard about the militia down there. Armed civilians. They were very dangerous, not because half of them couldn't aim, but because if that many people are blind firing at you, it's feeling like its storming bullets. That's not something you wanted to be caught in.

"So are we looking for someone, or just stopping the militia or both?" I asked.

"Not only are we doing both, we also need to interrogate Arcadio Rojas," Soap said.

"Who's he?" Ghost asked.

"Alejandro Rojas' brother," Soap replied.

"Is that some sort of family business for them or something?" I asked.

"It looks like it," Soap said.

"Guess we should start training the guys," Ghost said.

I cleared my throat.

"And A.J.," Ghost corrected.

"Well train them well, cuz it looks like this militia knows how to keep Rojas safe," Soap said.

"Well as long as we know what we're doing, we should be okay," I said.

"I hope so," Ghost said looking down.


	6. Chapter 6

"How many people are we taking in?" I asked Soap as we were walking towards Shepherd's building.

"Well let's see," Soap said as he started counting people off on his fingers. "About 7."

"Cool," I said as we stepped in the door.

"Afternoon MacTavish," Shepherd said. Then he looked at me. "Shouldn't you still be in bed, A.J?" He asked.

"I'm not made of glass. Besides, my shoulder doesn't really hurt too badly," I said moving it around a little bit.

Shepherd rolled his eyes. "Well anyway," he said pulling out a map of Brazil. "We believe that Rojas is hiding somewhere in Rio de Janeiro."

"Wow, they don't move much do they?" I asked.

"Apparently they don't. Must have thought we wouldn't suspect them to be in the same place," Shepherd replied giving me a look that said either stop talking or leave. I shut up.

"The militia in the Favela are brutal. They know what happened last time and they aren't going to let it happen again," Shepherd said.

"So how exactly are we going to get to Rojas then?" I asked.

"If you would let me finish, I was just about to get to that," Shepherd said glaring at me. I just smiled back.

"We are you to drop you in about a klick and a half east of the town. You will walk into town, and find the Hotel Rio. That's where you'll be staying. From there, you should be able to monitor the militia's activities, and see where in the Favela Rojas is. Find him, and see what he can tell you on the whereabouts of Makarov," Shepherd explained.

"So we're going on this mission for Intel?" I asked.

"The more we know about Makarov, the closer we are to capturing him, and ending this war," Shepherd said.

Soap and I nodded.

"Do you understand what you will be doing on this mission?" Shepherd asked.

"Yes sir," Soap and I said simultaneously.

"Good, dismissed," Shepherd said sitting down and looking at the map on his table.

Soap and I walked out.

"So who are you taking?" I asked.

"You, Price, Ghost, Roach, Meat, Royce and myself," Soap said ticking the people off on his fingers as he said there names.

"Want me to go tell Ghost what's going on so he can start to get us ready?" I asked.

"No, I've got it. I want to go lay down and get some rest," Soap told me.

I growled and walked away. I didn't feel like laying down. I decided to go find Roach, and go talk to him. The last time I had seen him was at the school. I wasn't walking to far before I found him. He was playing one on one basketball with Worm, and was losing pretty badly.

"Hey Roach," I said as I approached the court.

" Hey mate," he said as Worm caught the ball and signaled for a time out. Roach put his hands on his knees. He was breathing hard and was really sweaty.

"Gosh, how long have you been losing?" I asked teasing him.

"A while now. I just learned how to play and… Hey!" he exclaimed when he figured out what I had really said.

"What? You are doing pretty bad," I said shrugging. My shoulder didn't hurt too bad anymore.

"Whatever," Roach said dismissively.

"So what's the score?" I asked.

"I don't know. I lost track after 62 to zero."

I started laughing.

Roach hit me in the back of the head playfully.

"Hey!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, just a heads up, we're probably going to have training tomorrow," I said.

"Why, are we going somewhere soon?" He asked.

"Yeah. I hope you like hot climates," I said walking away.


	7. Chapter 7

I had no idea where I was walking to. I looked up in the sky, and saw they sun making its slow descent for night. I decided it was late enough for me to go to bed. I slowly trudged off to the barracks, and found my bed. It felt really comfortable compared to the hospital bed. Whoa, if I was saying that this bed was comfortable, I knew I had been here too long. I laid down, and fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. I slept without any dreams that night.

I awoke the next morning, to being shaken by Soap.

"Come on kid, you've gotta get up," I heard him say.

"I'm up, I'm up," I said as I was sitting up. "What's going on?"

"The Brazilian militia just murdered their president. They've started killing civilians now, so we need to leave," Soap said.

"When are we leaving?" I asked looking for my gear. I found my vest, and boots, but the rest of my clothes were proving difficult to find in the dark. I found the light switch and flipped it on. I had to shut my eyes when the light came on though, because the light was really bright to my eyes which were so used to the dark.

"We're leaving in one hour. Get your stuff together and meet us by the chopper. Remember kid, ONE hour," Soap said putting emphasis on the one part.

I rolled my eyes and found my pants. I put them on and headed over to the armory. I grabbed my G36C and a Glock 18. I grabbed some ammo, and put it in my pouch. Then I went to the Mess Hall, grabbed some rations, and an extra water bottle. I always got thirsty at the worst of times, so now I would be prepared. I met Ghost, Soap, Price, Meat, Royce, and Roach at the hangar where we would board the chopper.

"You know what's going on?" Roach asked me.

"The militia is acting up again. We've gotta go stop them," I replied.

Roach didn't say anything else.

The ride to Rio de Janeiro was pretty quiet except when Soap briefed us on the chopper. After that, most everyone fell asleep. Soap, Price and I were the only ones who were still awake.

"You can go to sleep if you want to A.J.," Price told me. "It's gonna be a long flight."

"I was asleep when Soap woke me up. I'm not really tired anymore," I said. It was true. I could function pretty well on just three hours of sleep.

Soap was starting to nod off.

"You'll probably doze off before we get there though," he said. "Go ahead, I'll stay awake."

I leaned my head on Soap's arm. He was pretty used to me doing this by now. The first time I did it though, he freaked out. I was asleep within the next two minutes.

I woke up when we had just reached the coast of Brazil. It was only 15 minutes until we were over Rio de Janeiro, or at least our drop off point.

I started to shake Soap awake.

"Wha?" he asked waking up.

"We're almost here," I said.

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and woke everyone else on the team up. The team got their gear together, just as Nikolai said, "We are over the drop zone now, Captain Price."

"All right, we drop from the heli, and walk into Rio de Janeiro. Find the Hotel Rio and get to your rooms. The soon we can set up, the soon we can go after this bastard," Price explained.

"How long is the walk?" Meat asked.

"It's about a click and a half," Soap said.

Everyone except Price, Soap and I groaned.

I was the first to drop out of the heli, and I waited until everyone was out until we all started the long walk to Rio de Janeiro. In the Brazilian heat, it felt like we were walking 3 miles, not a klick and a half.

"We there yet?" I asked for about the millionth time.

"If you ask that question one more time, I'm going to cut out your tongue," Captain Price threatened. I knew he would do it, so I stopped asking.

"YES!" I heard Meat scream.

I looked up. We had finally arrived at Rio de Janeiro.

"So where exactly is the Hotel Rio?" I asked ignoring a glare from Price.

"It's somewhere in the middle of the city," Price said.

"You don't even know where it is?" I asked flatly.

"I do know where it is. Like I said it's in the middle of the city," Price argued.

"Whatever," I said as I rolled my eyes.

We were walking for another thirty minutes, even though it felt like another hour, until we got to the Hotel Rio. We checked in, found our rooms, and set up our observation stand. We had a room on the top floor, so we could watch people without too much suspicion. Shepherd got us two rooms, because there was no way that 7 people could fit on two tiny beds and one sofa. It was impossible, so Roach, Ghost and I were in one room, and Soap, Price, Meat, and Royce were in the other. I claimed one bed for myself before Roach and Ghost even got into the room.

"Come on," Ghost said. "You can't expect me and Roach to share a bed. We're fully grown men, and this bed is tiny. Why can't you just share with Roach?"

"Then why would you get your own bed?" I asked.

"I'm second in command-"

"You could be the Queen of England for all I care. I'm not sharing," I said glaring.

Ghost knew he had lost this one and didn't push the issue farther.

"I don't mind sharing with you Ghost," Roach said quietly.

"Shut up," Ghost growled.

"Yes sir," Roach said. Ghost rolled his eyes.

Soap had come over 20 minutes after we had all finished unpacking. Unpacking was taking out all of our equipment. He had to hide them in bags, because we didn't want the civilians to start panicking and thinking that we were part of the militia.

"Do you all know the rotation of shifts? We need at least two people watching the road, and what we can see of the city at all times. If Rojas is out there, we need to find him. We also have to look out for the civilians to make sure the militia doesn't stir up any trouble," Soap said.

"Okay," I said.

"Target is entering the building across the street," I heard Meat say over the comms.

"Wow, that was fast," I said as we all grabbed our binoculars and looked out the window. Sure enough you could see Rojas talking to someone as they were walking into the bar.

"Uh, if we are going after them, I can't follow you into that bar. I'm under age, and they will probably card me," I said.

Soap was thinking.

"Meat, Ghost, Price and I will go into the bar. You, Roach, and Royce will stay outside incase he tries to run," MacTavish said. We all grabbed our weapons and headed over to the bar. I stood by a dumpster that was near the front, but if you were going in, or coming out, you wouldn't be able to see me. Only down side was that it smelled really bad. I waited out here until I heard someone yelling inside. I got my Glock 18 out and turned the safety off in case I needed to fire quickly. Someone came running out of the bar, and I heard Price exclaim, "Don't let him get away!"

I started running and was gaining on Rojas. He went down a side alley and I followed him. I loved my size, because I was small and speedy. I jumped out, and tackled Rojas around the waist. I pointed my pistol at his head.

"Get off of me!" he yelled.

"Not a chance," I said. "I have Rojas. We are in an alley east of the bar," I said into my comm.

Soap and Price were the first to arrive after about a minute. The rest of the ream wasn't far behind.

"Nice job A.J.," Soap said grabbing Rojas. I got up and brushed some of the dust off of my pants.

"Thank you, thank you," I said taking a big theatrical bow.

Price rolled his eyes and muttered, "Showoff."

We walked back to the Hotel, with Rojas in tow. He wasn't very happy, and was sending out a stream of curses in Portuguese. I didn't understand a single word of it, so it didn't bother me.

Ghost sat Rojas down in a chair inside of our room, and Soap tied him to it. I was trying to figure out why they put him in a metal chair, because they were pretty easy to break, until I saw Ghost pull out a car battery with jumper cables.

"Are you really going to shock him?" I asked.

"Only if he doesn't cooperate. We also have other means of making him talk."

I felt a cold chill go down my spine. I had never seen in interrogation before, so this would be my first one. I was a little wary about some of the other means of making him talk but I shrugged it off and sat down on the bed.

"So Rojas," Ghost said. Rojas looked up. "We know you're giving out firearms so your buddies here, but who else do you give them too?"

"I can't tell you that. I swore not to talk," Rojas growled between clenched teeth.

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," Ghost said getting into Rojas' face.

"I won't tell you anything. You're not going to get it out of me," Rojas said. I noticed that his English was much better than his brother's.

"Have it your way," Ghost said as he attached the jumper cables to Rojas' chair. "There is a reason that your chair is made of metal dumb ass."

Ghost cranked up the volts and shocked Rojas. Rojas tried to hold back a scream. I couldn't imagine how much that hurt.

Ghost turned the battery off.

"I can't tell you. I swear to my customers that I will not give their names out," Rojas said starting to panic now.

"Just tell us and we can let you go," Ghost said.

"I can't!" Rojas shouted.

"What is there name? Is it Makarov?" Ghost asked.

"I cannot tell you," Rojas said exasperated.

"This isn't getting us anywhere, Ghost," Soap said.

He took Ghost's place and squatted down until he was looking Rojas square in the eyes.

"Just tell us what we want to know, and we can let you go unharmed. If you don't cooperate, you will only bring more pain on yourself," Soap said.

"I am not going to tell you. Do what you want, but I will not talk," Rojas said.

Soap sighed and got up. He pulled his arm back and snapped it forward as hard as he could, and made contact with Rojas' face. His nose broke on contact, and started gushing blood.

Rojas started to groan in pain.

"Are you gonna talk?" Soap asked.

Rojas shook his head which only got blood everywhere.

Soap pulled out his M1911 Colt .45 and shoved a silencer into the barrel. He put the gun against Rojas' knee and pulled the trigger. Rojas screamed in pain. He knee was really gross looking and was gushing out blood.

"What is his name?" Soap asked forcefully aiming his pistol at Rojas' other knee.

Rojas took a minute to catch his breath and finally said. "Makarov. Vladimir Makarov."

"Where is he?" Soap asked.

"I don't know. We haven't done business since last month."

"How could you not know? You've been doing business with the man for the past year," Soap said jamming his gun into Rojas' good knee. He winced.

He hasn't contacted me since then, and he moves around a lot," Rojas said. I was guessing he really wanted to keep that other leg.

"Yeah we know that. Otherwise we wouldn't have come asking you were he is," Ghost said.

"I mailed his orders to him. He has two addresses that I use. He might be at one of those," Rojas said.

"I think that's all we need out of him," Soap said.

"Now what are we going to do with him?" I asked. If we just let him go, his trail of blood would lead straight to where we were. Not to mention, he would get very far cuz of his leg.

"I say we just kill him," Ghost said.

Soap raised his gun and aimed it at Rojas' head.

Rojas didn't even have time enough to register what was going on before Soap pulled the trigger.

"Do you think the militia is going to sniff around for Rojas when he doesn't come back from the bar?" I asked.

"Who knows, but we really need to get out of here. We got the Intel we need," Soap said.

All of us went back to our rooms, and started to pack up our stuff.

"Nikolai, meet at the primary LZ in 2 hours," I heard Soap say over the comms.

I groaned. It was going to be another really long walk. It should only take us about half an hour to get packed up and check out. There was no ways I would last if we had to trek through this heat for an hour and a half. I sighed as I unloaded my pistol and G36C. We shouldn't need them, unless the militia was on to us about Rojas. We were pretty quiet except for when Rojas was screaming, but that could have been anyone screaming as far they're concerned.

Half an hour later, we were all checked out and had started to work our way though the city. I noticed behind the city, was a mountain with quite an incline. It was in the direction that we were headed. I knew that Meat and I would die if we really had to climb that.

"Captain Price," I asked.

"What is it this time?" He asked me through clenched teeth. He obviously wasn't over the "Are we there yet" thing from earlier.

"Are we actually going to have to climb that mountain?" I asked.

"It's more of an incline that you walk up than a mountain, but yes we do," he replied.

Meat and I groaned in unison.

"Come on you two, there is no use in complaining over it. No matter what, you're still gonna have to walk," Soap said.

I was thinking about asking Soap whether or not he would just carry me up, but he would probably say no and to stop being lazy.

We started our slow ascent up the "incline" as Price called it. The more I walked, the more it seemed like a mountain to me. I was sweating bullets only one fourth of the way up.

"You alright, A.J.?" Soap asked me when he noticed that I was lagging behind the rest of the group.

"I will live," I panted. Meat wasn't too much further in front of me. We were both drop dead tired.

"You barely did anything, how are you tired?" Soap asked me teasingly.

Well, he was supposed to be teasing, but I was hot from being outside, tired from all of this walking around in the heat, and jetlagged from the flight over. It didn't take much for my internal clock to get all messed up.

I didn't answer.

Soap didn't say anything to my lack of an answer. He knew I was hot, so he wasn't going to push it.

15 minutes later of thinking I was going to die from heat, I heard the beat of helicopter rotors.

"Please let that be Nikolai," I said.

"I was thinking the same thing," Meat said.

A few minutes later, a helicopter landed only a few feet away from us. The door opened to the side and I saw Nikolai. Meat and I both ran as fast as we could, and got seats right under the A/C.

"Are you alright my friends?" we heard Nikolai ask.

"Yeah, we've just never been so happy to see you. Do you know how hot it is?" I asked.

"No, but I can guess," Nikolai said looking at us. Our shirts were drenched with sweat.

"Yeah, it's hot," I said. The A/C in the chopper felt like heaven. Nikolai laughed at us as the rest of our team climbed into the chopper.

On the ride back, most of the team was talking quietly amongst themselves, but Meat and Royce were having a heated argument about which car was the best. Nikolai was singing some song, but I couldn't tell what it was because of his accent. I was just sitting and enjoying the A/C.

"When we get back, the first thing we are all doing, is taking a shower," Soap announced to everyone in the chopper. No one complained though, because we all knew we needed one. We were just hoping we could get there fast enough before all of the hot water was gone.

As soon as the chopper landed, I grabbed my stuff, ran to my bed, got my shower stuff and a spare set of clothes and ran to the shower. Apparently Meat had the same idea, because we were both running to the showers. They really were just 3 walls with a curtain on one side. Even though they were a bit small, and clumped together, they provided privacy.

I turned on the water as hot as it would go and waited for it to warm up. The water felt good against my body. It washed all of the sweat and dirt away. About 5 minutes later, I heard someone singing very loudly and off key.

_What the hell? _I thought. _Way to ruin a perfect shower._

I turned off the water, dried off and got dressed. That's when I found out that the terrible singing was coming from Meat.

"What the hell, Meat!" I exclaimed. "Learn to sing on key next time."

He stopped singing.

I wasn't sure what to do now, cuz everyone else was probably standing around talking about what we were going to doing next. I decided to go the shooting range. I grabbed my G36C and some extra mags. The targets popped up one at a time, and I took them all down as soon as I saw them. When I was done, I heard someone clapping behind me.

"Very nice job, A.J.," They said. "You've improved.

I turned to see Captain Price behind me.

"Thanks. I've been trying."

"It's taken some people years to do what you just did. Have you ever considered giving sniping a try?" Price asked me.

"Uh, no. For me, the rifle is too heavy, and has too much recoil. I'll leave the sniping to Archer.

"Suit yourself then," Price said shrugging as he walked away.

I looked down at my watch. Dinner was just starting. I decided was getting pretty hungry, and headed over to the Mess Hall. Everyone was inside already. The food smell wafting out was incredible.

"Wait a minute," I said to myself. "I know that smell."

"Of course you do kid," Soap said coming up behind me and clapping me on the back. "It's your favorite food in the world."

"Oh my God! It's taco night!" I exclaimed running into the Mess Hall.

Everyone started laughing when they saw me run in, because they knew I loved tacos. They would have called me taco, but they found out I liked archery first.

I filled my plate with 3 big tacos, and sat down with Soap, Ghost, and Roach.

"Oh my God," Roach said when he saw my plate. "Are you going to be able to eat all of those?"

"Do NOT touch my tacos Roach," I said. Don't even look at them."

"You know how that girl is about her tacos," Soap said.

They all just laughed as I stuffed part of a taco in my mouth, and had to spit it out.

"What?" Ghost asked. "Did someone poison your taco?"

"No!" I exclaimed fanning my mouth. "It's really hot!"

They were cracking up as if was fanning my mouth. I grabbed the pitcher of water on the table and downed it.

"Hey! You kill it you fill it," Ghost said handing me the pitcher back just as I had set it down. I took the pitcher and went into the kitchen. I got it refilled and returned to the table. They were still laughing at me.

"I want to see you all burn your tongues, and then see what you do. That really hurt!" I protested.

"You just had to see the look on your face though," Soap said. "It was priceless."

I glared at them and picked up my taco. I blew it off to make sure it was cooler before I ate it. I ate all of my tacos in 15 minutes.

"You have got quite a stomach. 3 overstuffed tacos and whole pitchers of water?" Soap said as put my cup down after finishing what was inside.

"I was hungry, and they put way too much hot sauce in them."

Nikolai came over and sat down next to us.

Hello my friends, there is a movie night in the lounge tonight if you want to come. They are deciding on the movie when we all get there. It is recommended that you bring a sleeping bag or a blanket and pillow, because we are most likely going to sleep there," He said.

"So are you acting as the messenger?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes and went to the next table.

"So a movie night, eh?" Ghost said.

"This ought to be interesting," I said.


	8. Chapter 8

I went back to my bed and got my two favorite blankets, and a pillow. I started walking over to the lounge. I was hoping that the movie or movies we were watching wouldn't be too scary. I didn't need to have any night mares.

I got inside the lounge, and laid down between Soap and Ghost.

"Hey kid," they said at the same time.

"Ello, ello," I said."

"So what are we watching?" Ghost asked.

"I don't know. You've been here longer than me," I said.

Then General Shepherd stepped in front of the big screen T.V. Everyone fell silent immediately.

"We have a few movie choices tonight, and since you have tomorrow off, I figured we could try to watch them all. If you get tired, you can go back to your bunk, or just stay here," he said. He turned around and put one of the DVD's into the T.V. The lights went out and everyone went silent.

Shepherd fast forwarded the previews and hit the play button. He did it so fast that I didn't even know what we were watching. I just happened to catch the opening screen.

"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered under my breath.

"What? Are you scared kid?" Ghost asked me teasingly.

"Yeah, I can't watch Paranormal Activity!" I exclaimed. "I won't sleep right for weeks."

"Its not real. Just keep telling yourself that," Ghost said turning his attention back toward the T.V.

"Only one problem with that," I said.

"What?"

"Everything that happened in this movie happened in real life!" I exclaimed.

I got up and took my blankets and pillow with me.

"Where are you going kid?" Soap asked as I walked out the door. "You're going to miss it."

I didn't stop to answer him. I just kept walking straight to my bed. I hated scary movies and refused to watch them. I watched one when I was 6 and I vowed never to watch another scary movie in my life. So far I was keeping to that vow. Now for some reason, even if I wanted to watch something scary, my body wouldn't let me.

I sat down on the edge of my bed and put my head in my hands. Everyone was going to ask me why I bailed on the movie. I would just tell them that my shoulder had started hurting and that I was going to turn in for the night.

I heard the door open and close, but I never heard anyone's footsteps, so I looked up. I saw Roach walking into the room.

"You alright, kid?" He asked me. "You left outta there pretty fast."

"I just really don't like scary movies," I replied. I really didn't want to go into the whole scary movie when I was six thing.

"Yeah, me either. I just don't want to get called a wimp," Roach said looking down.

"Just cuz you don't like scary stories, doesn't mean that you're a wimp," I said.

"I know, but I don't want my nickname to get changed to that."

"Well if they do start calling you a wimp," I said. "Just don't answer. They'd get bored eventually and stop."

"True. Oh, and Price wanted me to tell you that you have school tomorrow," Roach said.

"What? It's been a week already?" I asked. There was no way it had been a week already. Only good thing was that I had somehow gotten out of cleaning up the mess.

"Looks like it. Get some sleep. You've got a long day ahead of you. Not only do you have school, but we have physical training with Price."

"I'm gonna die," I complained.

"It won't be that bad," Roach said with a pat on my shoulder good night.

I sighed and laid down. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I guess I was more tired than I had thought.


	9. Chapter 9

I awoke early the next morning. Not that I wanted to go to school, but the year was almost over, so I was getting excited.

'_It's the last week,' _I thought to myself. After this, I would be freer to do missions without worrying about homework getting done.

Captain Price came in my room to wake me up. "Of course it's on the last week that you wake up yourself," he said teasingly.

I rolled my eyes and went to take a shower. The hot water really woke me up, and made me feel kinda hyper. I loved showers like that.

I went down to the Mess Hall and saw Ghost, Soap, and Price all looking at a map and talking to each other. I went over and sat with them.

"Upcoming mission?" I asked.

"Not exactly," Soap said.

"What do you mean 'not exactly'?" I asked.

"I got an email this morning from someone anonymous, and it said to beware the school," Ghost said.

"We're checking out how many different entrances your school has. You may be going to school, but you aren't going to get much work done. We are sending in 7 people. 5 people on all of the entrances and two inside. Since you're going to be n the school, you are going to just stay in your classes, but I'm gonna see if you can get out of your tests. You're gonna have to be fully focused on finding tangoes," Soap said.

"Do you think it was from Makarov?" I asked. "And if it was, don't you think that he would expect you to take some people from the base to protect the school. He was probably thinking that there would be less people here, so he would have a more successful attack."

"She does have a point, Soap," Price said.

"We can't just leave your school unprotected. There are over 200 innocent kids there," Soap said. He absolutely hated it when innocent civilians died unnecessarily. Don't get me wrong, none of us liked it, but it affected Soap really bad.

"Ok, I'll take three people with me, and everyone else stays on the base on alert," I said. Even though I had suggested it, I was hoping Soap wouldn't make me the leader of my people.

"Who do you want to take?" Soap asked.

I knew I wanted Ghost, but I didn't know who else. Soap and Price needed to stay here. Roach seemed like my only other option.

"I'll take Roach and Ghost," I said.

"Ghost, you're in charge," Soap said. "Go get Roach, Kid, and tell him to suit up.

"Yes sir," I said before getting up to find Roach.

Like most of the other Task Force soldiers, he was still asleep. They typically stayed in bed till seven. I walked over to Roach's bed and tried to shake him awake. He barely flinched.

"I don't have time for this," I said to myself as I got a good grip on Roach's mattress and flipped him onto the floor.

"I'm up, I'm up," He said jumping to his feet and saluting.

"It's just me Roach," I said. Roach looked at me and brought his hands down to his sides.

"What'd you roll me off the bed for?" He asked.

"Cuz you need to get suited up for your next mission," I said.

"What mission?" He asked.

"The one that just came up. You'll get briefed as soon as you get down to the Mess Hall," I said.

"Should I bring my ACR?" Roach asked. That was the gun he preferred to use.

"Yeah, sure," I said turning to leave for the armory. I decided to use an ACR, but I didn't usually use that, so I had to go get one. It may be a bit heavy, but it would come in handy when I needed to take out some badies.

I got to the armory and picked out my rifle, and a Glock 18. It was my favorite hand gun. I picked up 630 extra rounds, 4 flash bangs, and 4 frags. This was the first time that I would be allowed to carry any frag grenades into school with me. I had to be really careful though, because unlike a flash bang, a frag grenade would kill if it exploded next to someone. I deliberated whether or not just to bring 8 flash bangs, but I figured now would be as good a time as any to get used to them. I attached the grenades to my vest and went back to the Mess Hall. Ghost and Roach were there, and all suited up. Ghost would drive me to school like normal, but park around the back. We'd stake out the school to make sure there weren't any tangos, around, then go inside. Ghost would check the lower wing, and Roach and I would check the upper wing. Ghost was going to stay down in the lower wing, and Roach would stay in the hall ways. I had to go to my classes in case someone tried to hold my class hostage.

"What are you thinking about A.J.?" Ghost asked me as he was driving along the highway.

"Just trying to figure out why someone would go through all of the trouble to target a school full of kids just to get at one person," I replied. This had to be the work of Makarov. He was the only person who would be capable of doing such a thing, and not feel the least bit guilty later.

"I'm not sure, but I've got my suspicions," Ghost said.

"Yeah so do I," I trailed off.

Makarov really wanted me dead, and I had no idea why. He was going to some extreme lengths to get it done. We really had to be on alert, because we really didn't know which place he was going to attack. It was starting to get like one of the cheesy movies where the bad guy sends you a letter to tell you to look one way while he goes another, and you don't realize it until it's too late. Well, I wasn't going to let it get too late. I was going to save everyone at my school. They guys at the base could pretty much take care of themselves.

"Ghost, this is MacTavish," I heard Soap say through the comms. "If you guys find Makarov, take him down immediately."

"You think this is his work?" Ghost asked.

"We aren't sure, but if it is, we need to put a stop to it."

I was hoping on the inside that Makarov would be there. I really just wanted to take him out so instead of worrying about being killed by a sociopathic terrorist, I could just get on with my really messed up life. Makarov was starting to become a global threat. Only problem with this bastard is that he was really smart. You couldn't underestimate him, or it could be the death of you.

"We're approaching the school," Ghost said pulling into the teachers' parking lot.

"Let's get this over with," I said getting out of the car.

"Ready?" Ghost asked.

Roach and I both nodded.

"Alright then, let's do this," Ghost said getting out of the car and scoping out the school.


	10. Chapter 10

I stayed 2 meters to Ghost's left and checked out the woods. The woods were thick and crawling with poison ivy, so I had to be careful not to touch it. I had this really bad break out on my face once. I looked like the phantom of the opera. I carefully combed through the woods. I thought I saw some wires, but they turn out to be vines. I didn't see anything else.

"The woods are clear," I called to Ghost.

"Parking lot it clear," I heard Roach say.

"Good. Go check inside the school," Ghost said. I got out of the woods and headed into the school. Still nothing. If Makarov was going to attack, I hoped he did it while we were ready for him.

What I say inside shocked the crap out of me. There were barrels of gasoline everywhere, and they were covered with C4. All of the students that came to before care were tired up to chairs. They were blindfolded and the some were covered with C4 as well. Standing next to one of the kindergarteners was none other than Makarov himself. He was leaning against the chair holding and M4A1 with one hand and the detonator for the C4 in the other.

"If you kill me, everyone else goes to," he said gesturing to all of the kids that were tied up. If he detonated the C4, even the people who didn't have any C4 on them, like myself would be gone.

'_Stupid sociopathic bastard has to make everything complicated,'_ I thought to myself.

"Want do you want Makarov?" Ghost asked. I could see him trying to discreetly say that into his throat mic so he could tip Soap and Price off without Makarov knowing.

"How the hell did you even have time enough to set this up?" I asked. "School wasn't even open for 30 minutes yet," I said glancing at the overhead clock.

"I have my ways," he said.

This was going to take some serious thinking though to get out of this in one piece. One might even call it impossible.

"ETA 20 minutes," Soap said through the comms.

I took a step forward and Makarov raised the detonator and applied slight pressure to it. Not enough to set it off, but just enough for me to see it move. I stepped back.

"You," Makarov said pointing at Roach.

Ghost and I looked at Roach. We had just remembered that he was still there.

"Get over here."

Roach took a step forward.

"No, put the gun down first, and then come over here," Makarov said.

Roach looked up at Ghost, and Ghost gave the slightest nod. Roach put his ACR on the ground and slowly walked over to Makarov.

Makarov took a pistol out of its holster on this thigh, and placed it against Roach's head.

"I will kill two children every hour if my demands aren't met," Makarov said cocking the hammer.

"Why would you want to kill children? Isn't there something better you could do?" I asked.

Makarov just glared at me. His two colored eyes were kinda freaking me out.

"What do you want?" Roach asked.

"You know what I want. I want Viktor and Kiril. I know you have them," Makarov said pushing the muzzle of his pistol harder against Roach's head.

"Who are they?" Ghost asked.

"You know who they are," Makarov said.

"They are his accomplices. They helped him during the Airport Massacre," I told Ghost.

I saw the corners of Makarov's momentarily curve up in a smirk and then back into a harsh frown.

"What makes you think that we have them?" Ghost asked.

Makarov shoved his hand into his pocket, pulled out a few photographs and some newspaper clippings, and threw them at Roach's feet.

"Show them," Makarov said.

Roach took the pictures and newspaper, but hesitated.

"Show them!" Makarov exclaimed hitting Roach in the head with his pistol. Roach staggered then slowly walked over to Ghost and me. His face showed it was nothing good.

'_Oh God,' _I thought to myself. '_This day isn't going to get any better.'_


	11. Chapter 11

'_Oh God,' _I thought to myself. '_This day isn't going to get any better.'_

"We're outside the school," Soap said into the comms. "We're coming around the back."

Hopefully they would come in the back quietly so Makarov wouldn't notice. I saw the door open slowly and quietly. Soap, Price, Worm, Meat, and Royce slipped in and started to take the C4 off of the kids and kill the charge so if Makarov tried to detonate it, it wouldn't work.

Roach reached us and showed us the pictures.

I couldn't believe my eyes. The pictures were of us. It was kinda dark, so I couldn't tell where we were, but I could tell that it was us. We were handcuffing someone. That someone looked like Viktor. I knew I wasn't known for my memory, but I knew that we haven't arrested anyone for a while.

"We don't have them," I said.

"Yes you do. Can't you see?" Makarov asked.

"I'm not blind!" I exclaimed. I knew my vision wasn't the best, but I could still see pretty good.

"Don't talk back to me," Makarov said.

"Don't tell me what to do!" I yelled. I didn't like people telling me what to do.

Makarov and I were in the middle of a glaring match.

"Отвяжитесь," Makarov muttered.

I rolled my eyes. I had no idea what he just said.

Soap had just finished disconnecting all of the C4. I leveled my gun at Makarov's head.

"I don't think you want to do that," Makarov said bringing the detonator up.

"Yeah, I think I do," I said smirking.

Without warning, Makarov clicked the button on the detonator, and heard a click.

"Why isn't this working?" Makarov said furiously clicking the detonator over and over again.

"You sure you connected them right?" Soap asked coming up behind Makarov.

It looked like Makarov was about to have a heart attack. Soap was laughing.

"How did you get in here?" Makarov asked.

"Did you ever think to check the back door?" Soap asked.

Makarov looked. He obviously didn't realize that there was a back door.

"You are so blown right now, Makarov," I said smirking.

Makarov sighed and dropped his guns. That made me suspicious, because he normally didn't give up this easily.

"Careful Ghost," Soap said as Ghost slowly walked forward to handcuff Makarov.

Just as Ghost was about to slap the cuffs on Makarov's wrists, Makarov turned around and punched Ghost out cold. Before we had time to react, he ran right towards us and out the door. We tried to chase after him, but he was in a truck and on the highway before we even had time to get ours started.

"Damnit!" Soap growled as he hit his fists on the hood of the truck. "Slippery bastard got past us again."

"I honestly feel like that as long as Makarov doesn't want to be caught, which I doubt he ever will want to be, we aren't going to catch him," I said.

"I really need you to shut up," Soap said.

I rolled my eyes. I was only saying what I thought was true. Makarov was sneaky, and even though I hated to admit it, he was really smart too. It was going to take some time to think how we could catch him.

Anyway, luckily for me my school was going to be closed for the next two days so I would have time to work on whatever Soap threw at us. He was known to give out ridiculous amounts of work when he was pissed.

"Everyone get in the truck," Soap growled climbing behind the passenger seat.

While we were standing there, Roach had gone back inside to get Ghost and put him in the truck that I had ridden in. I rode back with Roach, one, because I didn't feel like dealing with Soap's anger issues, and two, there wasn't any room in the other trucks anyway.

Roach was quiet on the ride back to the base. I mean, he was normally quiet, but he was unusually quiet for even though he was quiet.

"You ok Roach?" I asked.

He nodded. I kinda expected that.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Not really," Roach admitted.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm just trying to figure out how Makarov got those pictures of us. We never arrested them."

"Maybe he's really good at photo shop. I've been trying to figure that thing out forever," I said.

Roach didn't say anything. He was staring at the red light.

The rest of the ride back to the base was quiet. Roach took Ghost over to the Hospital section of the base. Makarov had broken Ghost's nose pretty badly and gave him a concussion. I headed over to the rec room. I didn't even bother to take my gear off. I was too tired. I walked in and headed straight for the couch.

"You're not even going to take your gear off?" I heard someone ask behind me.

I turned around. It was Archer.

"No."

"You alright? You don't seem to be your normal and bubbly self," he said.

"Just trying to figure out how Makarov got a hold of something." I had no clue where those pictures came from. Unless…

"Archer?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know if any of there are any records like pictures or video of us arresting someone?" I asked. Maybe Makarov got that one of those pictures. It would have been dark so it is possible that someone who was supposed to be Viktor was actually someone else.

"Yeah, probably. Why?" Archer asked.

"Is there anyway Makarov could have gotten to them?"

"With Makarov, anything is possible," Archer said.

"Cool, thanks." It wasn't really cool, but I know had my suspicions of where Makarov could have gotten the picture.

"Do you know what's for dinner?" Royce asked coming into the room.

"You would have a better idea than me," I said. I just got back."

"That is true," Royce said leaving.

I got up and went to my barrack. I took my gear off and changed into a Task Force shirt and a pair of long camo pants. Some people may have been tired of camo cuz we always have to wear it on missions, but I loved it. It matched anything that I wore, (black) and it was just plain awesome.

I headed over to the mess hall to see what was for dinner. It wasn't anything exciting, just some mixed veggies, and a type of meat I didn't feel like identifying, nor did I think was identifiable. I sat down next to Soap and Ghost and ate pretty quickly.

"Hey kid," Ghost greeted.

"Hey."

"What's up with you?"

"Just thinking. Do you think that Makarov could have gotten a photo of one of the arrests we made and photo shopped it so that the person we arrested looked like Viktor?" I asked.

"It would be really hard, but Makarov stops at nothing," he said.

I sighed.

"Don't worry about it kid. We stopped him from destroying your school. We'll stop him."

"Yeah, but that's not what I'm worried about," I said.


	12. Chapter 12

I got up and headed to the basketball court. I wasn't much of a basketball person, but something about watching other people play it helped me get my head together. Weird, I know, but I'm a weird person.

A few guys were on the court, but I didn't know any of them. I guess I was sitting out here more or less to cool off from our last mission than to think about how Makarov got those pictures. I got mad at myself whenever someone we could catch got away. It made me feel very insignificant.

I watched the guys play basketball, but it didn't do anything for me, so I decided to go for a run. Running always helped to clear my head, so I could chill. Archery did too, but I didn't think that it was a good idea to have something in my hands that I could shoot someone with. I got up and started running along the path that we used when we did Physical Training. I really felt like I needed it. I knew Makarov was bigger than me, but size didn't matter to me. I still should have been able to take him down, but I didn't and Ghost got hurt because of it.

I had the terrible habit of blaming myself for things and beating myself up over it after. I should stop, I know and I was trying.

I ran for about an hour before I started to get tired. I felt loads better. I headed over to the mess hall to grab a water bottle. As I turned to leave, I saw Ghost sitting at a table rolling a bottle of water between his hands. I sat down next to him.

"Hey, Ghost," I greeted.

"Hey," he said.

"How's your head?" I asked. He had two black eyes from his broken nose, and he looked a bit dizzy.

"It's alright. Doc fixed me up and gave me some meds. I'll be ready for some action by tomorrow.

I rolled my eyes. These guys were always so eager to rush the healing process. I know it's not fun to sit around and do nothing, but I would rather my body be strong so I can tackle whatever I was dealing with head first, then to still be healing when I'm on a mission. Trust me. Going on a mission with a broken wrist is no walk in the park.

"Well, night. I'm going to get some sleep."

"Yeah, good idea. I overheard Price and Soap talking about doing some PT tomorrow."

I groaned as I left. I hoped my legs wouldn't be super sore. They normally weren't but if they got tight, it took a long time to loosen them up again.

I headed over to my barrack and laid down in bed. I didn't care that I was all sweaty from running. I learned to not care about what condition I was in when I went to bed, as long as it was safe, I would be fine. Surprisingly, sleep came easily and I didn't dream that night. I normally always dreamed after a mission.

The next morning, I woke up around 6:30 in the morning. I took a shower, and headed to the mess hall. It seemed like the entire base was there, and there was hardly a place to sit. I got my food and found a very small spot by Soap and Price. I always felt weird when I was sitting next to Cpt. Price. Almost like I _had_ to use a fork and knife. I pretty much always eat with my fingers unless it was cereal, or certain types of soups, but that called for a spoon and that's a completely different story.

"Morning kid," they both said at the same time.

"Ello," I said. That was how I normally said hi if I wasn't actually saying the word hi. I always left off the h and I never knew why.

I had Lucky Charms for breakfast. I was happy. They had the perfect balance of cereal and awesomely shaped and swirled marshmallows. The only other person on the base that I knew like Lucky Charms was Roach.

"How on earth do you eat that?" Price asked.

"Easy. I put the food on my spoon, put the spoon in my mouth, chew, and then swallow," I said.

"That's not what I meant, smart Alec."

"But my name isn't Alec," I complained. "And you asked me how I eat them and I told you. Make up your mind on what you want to know." I loved getting on Price's nerves, when he was in a good mood. When he was in a bad mood was a completely different story I'd rather not get into. It was ugly.

Price sighed. "Cheeky bastard," he muttered under his breath.

Soap smirked. "Isn't it a little early to be annoying Price?" he asked.

Price looked up hopefully.

I looked at my watch. 7:00. "Nope," I said smiling.

Price face palmed.

I laughed. Annoying Price always made my day.

Price quickly finished his breakfast, and went to his office. Soap was watching me eat my Lucky Charms.

"Seriously, why does everyone just stare at me when I eat?" I asked.

"Because Lucky Charms are absolutely disgusting. They taste like cardboard with sugar," Soap said.

I gasped and pulled my bowl away from Soap. "I can't believe you just said that Soap. You hurt Lucky's feeling. Apologize right now!"

"What? Who is Lucky?

"Lucky is the magical leprechaun that make Lucky Charms. And you just hurt his feelings, so say sorry," I said as I put my bowl in front of Soap's face so he could say sorry to it.

"I'm not going to say I'm sorry to a bowl of cereal kid. That's just crazy," he said.

"Oh great, now you made him cry. That wasn't very nice of you Soap."

"It's a freaking bowl of cereal! It has no emotions!" Soap nearly yelled.

"That's it mister. You're going to have a time out," I said getting up.

"What?" Soap asked me looking completely lost.

"You heard me. Up now."

Soap got up. I pulled him to the corner of the mess hall and made him face the corner.

"Now you're going to stay there until you're ready to apologize to Lucky, for hurting his feelings," I said.

"It's a-"

"Ah! I don't wanna hear it," I said interrupting Soap's sentence. He rolled his eyes.

After about 5 minutes, Soap said, "Uh, kid. I really have to go pee."

"You can hold it. Say you're sorry and you can go."

"It doesn't have feelings. Come on!" Soap said crossing his legs. He was either really good at acting, or he really had to pee.

"You're not going anywhere till you say you're sorry, Soap."

"Ugh fine. I'm sorry," he said turning for the bathroom.

"Wait!"

He froze.

"You have to say it with feeling."

"Oh come on. I'm sorry Lucky," he said. He sounded a bit more sincere.

"Sorry for what?"

"I'm sorry Lucky that I insulted you and that I hurt your feelings. Can I please go pee now?" Soap asked. He was crossing his legs and jumping up and down.

"Sure what ever," I said finishing my cereal.

Soap tried to hurry to the bathroom, but couldn't run cuz he had to pee so badly. A lot of guys were watching, and quite a few were laughing. I was sure Soap would have said that he was going to get me back, but all of his concentration was taken up with him trying not to pee himself, so I took the initiative that he was going to and would watch my back. I put my bowl away, and headed outside to face a new day. It wasn't too hot, and it wasn't too cold. Perfect day for PT. Not that anyone wanted to do it, but we had Physical Training at least once a week, and Price wasn't one to break tradition. It's not that PT was terrible, but running 10+ miles, and doing 200 sit-ups and 200 pushups every week was a killer. I remember when I had my first PT. I could swear that my stomach muscles (I didn't have abs at that time) were about to burn off. My arms felt like jell-o and like they were about to fall off at any minute. It was terrible.

We all gathered up by the beginning of the trail. I had just run there yesterday. My legs weren't sore, but I could tell they didn't feel like running. At the moment, I felt very jealous of Soap, Ghost, and Price. They didn't have to do PT, but they chose to anyway. I thought they were crazy. I guess they want to prove they deserve to lead the 141. They were faster and stronger than a lot of us.

"Is everyone here?" Price asked. We all looked around and just shrugged. None of us were very good at counting heads.

"Right then, well first, we're going to run 20 miles for a warm up, then 500 sit-ups and pushups.

My mouth dropped open. Was Price crazy? I think he might have been in that Gulag a little bit too long. 20 mile run then 500 sit-ups and pushups? I was gonna die.

We started running and we all barely made it out of the trail. Price, Ghost and Soap seemed to be the only ones who weren't fazed by it at all. I was about to fall to the ground and pass out. Roach, and a few of the others were the same way.

"Alright you babies, drop and give me 500." He couldn't say ladies, because I was there, and the insult kind of lost some of its effect.

All of us dropped, but only Ghost and Soap actually started doing anything. The rest of us just laid there trying to catch our breaths. Price didn't have us jogging, we were sprinting.

A few of the guys had started to overheat and were starting to throw up. I turned away. I didn't want to lose my Lucky Charms. Once I could breathe a bit easier, I flipped over to my stomach in a pitiful attempt at a push up. At least I was trying, everyone else, save for Ghost and Soap of course, where laying around. After about an hour, I finished my pushups. My arms felt like they were dying. I flipped back over to my back and started doing my sit-ups. It took me forever but eventually finished them.

_**A/N: Meals are pretty much the only time I get to show off my inner kid. That and any free time we might happen to stumble across. Please scroll down just a little bit further, leave a review. Reviews make me want to keep writing. Not getting them make me question whether or not people like my story. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far! **___


	13. Chapter 13

. After about an hour, I finished my pushups. My arms felt like they were dying. I flipped back over to my back and started doing my sit-ups. It took me forever but eventually finished them. My stomach felt like it was burning, and my arms like they would fall off, but I was done. Price walked over the crumpled heap that was me laying on the ground.

"You really are pathetic, you know that right?" He asked me looking down.

"Why don't you try doing this?" I asked. I barely had the energy to keep breathing, let alone talk.

"I did. A long time ago," he responded.

I tried to get up, and Price helped me.

"Ugh, my arms are throbbing…"

"You'll live," Price said.

I started walking over to the mess hall. Anyone else who was able to get up did and headed over to the mess hall too. We had Mac n cheese for lunch. That was a good thing because, besides Tacos, Mac n cheese was my favorite food. I grabbed a plate and dug in. But then my arms stopped cooperating right in the middle of a big spoonful.

"Are you alright kid?" Price asked me.

"I blame you," I growled. It was no use staying in the mess hall if I could eat. I didn't feel like talking to anyone, so I got and headed over to the archery range. I was surprised when I could still shoot half way decent, considering how sore my arms were already.

"Hey kid, can I ask you something?" Someone said from behind me.

I put my bow down and turned around. It was Ghost.

"Yeah, sure. What's up?"

"Do you think Makarov is going to attack again anytime soon?" Ghost asked. Whether or not we thought he was going to attack again or not would affect whether or not people would be able to get some time off or not.

"Well, knowing Makarov. He would be expecting us to be expecting him to attack, so we would get all prepared and stuff, but then the minute we let our guard down, he would attack again," I explained.

"What?" Ghost asked looking completely confused.

"Good question," I replied. I confused myself with that explanation. I actually didn't even know what I had just said.

"Uh, yeah, ok," Ghost said walking away slowly. I felt like sometimes I didn't even speak English.

I heard an alarm going off somewhere on the base. It sounded like the deployment alarm. We had just gotten back from a mission, and we were headed out again? What the hell was going on?

I ran to get all of my gear and put it on. I'm not sure, but I almost forgot one of my boots. I checked myself over to make sure I wasn't missing anything, and then ran out to the chopper.

"What's going on Soap?" I asked before I climbed in.

"Good question," Soap replied.

"Do you mean you don't know?" I asked.

"I know, it was just a good question that deserves a good answer," Soap said.

I rolled my eyes and took a seat aboard the chopper. Ghost, Roach, Meat, Royce, Archer, Toad, and now Soap were on it too. This had to be major if they were sending out the snipers as well. Something told me that Makarov was behind this. He had a very interesting schedule.

We took off and headed to God only knows where.

"What's going on Captain?" Ghost asked when we had been flying for about 15 minutes and we didn't even know what was going on.

"Russia. Makarov is stirring up some trouble over there," Soap replied.

"Already? He just got back and he's already up to something? Does that guy even sleep?" I asked. With how much crap he's been up to lately it really didn't seem like it.

"Who knows," Soap said shrugging.

Not much else was said after that point. Going after Makarov, we knew we'd be in for something. Just didn't know what it was exactly.

Pretty much everyone except for Soap and I fell asleep. It seemed like we were having an unannounced staring contest.

"You blinked," I commented.

"Why are you staring at me?" Soap asked.

"Because you started staring at me first," I said. It was actually starting to creep me out.

"Drop off in thirty minutes," Nikolai announced from the cockpit.

Soap started to wake everyone else up.

"Five more minutes, mom," I heard Roach groan out still half asleep.

"What the bloody hell? I'm not your mother," Soap said slightly annoyed.

Roach woke up fully and realized it wasn't his mother trying to wake him up.

"Sorry Captain," Roach muttered looking down.

Everyone else woke up and rubbed the sleep from their eyes. They checked over their weapons for the last time, and prepared to get dropped off. Nikolai was going to land a bit a ways, and we were going to walk in. It was night time, so we were a bit harder to detect.

"Ready?" Soap asked from behind me.

"I've gone after Makarov more times than I can count. This is gonna be easy as cake," I replied.

Soap rolled his eyes at my use of an old saying.

"Whatever you say kid. Just stay sharp and try not to get yourself killed," Soap said.

I did a mental eye roll. I wasn't that bad. Well, something was telling me that I was going to be in Russia for a while. I was going to miss my bed while I was gone. I was a bit tired and stiff from not moving around on the chopper and felt it as I was stretching out and cracking my joints. I didn't know it at the time, but I was going to be in Russia for a lot longer than I had expected, and it was going to be all because of Makarov.

_**Sorry for the lack of an update. I've been really busy and just sprained my elbow, so typing is hard to find time for, and now painful. I will still try to update, but they might be a bit slow. _**_


	14. Chapter 14

_**It hurt like hell to get this out, but I did it. I'll try to make the next chapter bigger. I needed something to lead into the events that are to come.**_

Nikolai landed about half a mile from Makarov's safe house, and let us out.

"Meet us at the LZ in about 2 hours," Soap told Nikolai.

"Right my friend. I will see you in 2 hours," Nikolai said taking off to probably go refuel the chopper.

We all huddled up around Soap.

"Well, why are you all crowding around me? Let's get going," Soap said.

Soap led the way, and we followed him until we got close enough to the safe house that we could see it. We hid in the bushes and waited for Soap to tell us what exactly we were going to do.

"Anyone feel like camping?" Soap asked quite randomly. We all just stared at him.

"What? We have to watch the safe house to see when it is the least guarded, but Makarov is still there so we can take him out. That's gonna take some time," Soap told us.

We all groaned quietly. No one in the Task Force really liked camping that much.

"I'm gonna take Ghost with me. Archer and Toad, you two can set up wherever is best for you to take a shot at Makarov if it's clear. Roach, you and the kid are gonna go around the perimeter and see what's out here. Don't go together though. You can cover more ground if you go separately ," Soap said.

After we all got our assignments from Soap, I was walking around for a little bit to get a better view of the safe house. I just happened to look up at one of the rooms, and see Makarov. It was tempting to take the shot at him, but I didn't have a sniper rifle on me, and I was really bad at aiming them, so I would just have to deal with it. I looked for the binoculars that I always had on missions so I could get a closer look to see what he was planning next. It looked like he had some blueprints on his desk, but I could only guess because the paper was blue. Just as I was looking down to find them; I felt a shooting pain in the back of my head. I turned around to see what the cause was, only to feel the same pain shoot through my head again. I didn't have time to register what was going on before the pain became overwhelming, and I blacked out.

When I came to, I was tied to a chair.

"Oh my, how original," I muttered.

"Of course you start complaining as soon as you wake up," I heard someone with a Russian accent say. He sounded familiar. Oh, of course it did. It was Makarov.

"Jeez! It feels like you hit me in the head with a flipping fire extinguisher. WTF dude?" I exclaimed when I started to feel the pounding in my head.

Makarov ignored my comment.

"I have some questions that I want to ask you," he said.

"Don't we all have questions in life? Get in line," I said.

Makarov sighed. I knew he didn't like it when I talked back to him, but he wasn't my superior, so he was going to have to get used to it.

"If you cooperate with me, I might untie you. I know how much you hate being tied up," he said with a smirk.

"Yeah, doesn't everyone hate being tied up?" I asked.

"Well I know you really don't like it. You also don't like small spaces. So I might let you go and wonder around the house, or I could stick you in a small dark closet all tied up to this chair and never let you go. It's really your choice," Makarov said.

"If you untied me, wouldn't you be worried that I would and could just escape?" I asked. This guy was supposed to the be smartest terrorist in the world. Pfft.

"I'm not stupid. I thought about that and set up a strong security system throughout the entire house. There is no way you can get through it."

'_Hm, maybe or maybe not,'_ I thought to myself. Ghost was starting to teach my how to hack security systems. If this one wasn't too ridiculously complex, maybe I could crack it. But knowing Makarov, it was bound it be tough.

"Maybe some time alone will clear your head so you will be ready to talk," Makarov muttered.

"Wait what?" I asked.

Makarov rolled his eyes and started walking up the stairs.

"So you're just going to leave me down here?" I asked.

Then the lights went out.

"The lights? Really?" I asked. "You're just going to leave me alone down here in the dark?" I asked up. I couldn't really tell where the stairs were, but I think Makarov still heard me.

"Yes, and complaining will not help you," he yelled back. "I'll come back for you later. I have a headache from hearing you talk."

"Meanie," I muttered to myself.


	15. Chapter 15

I had been strugling with the bonds that held me to my chair for a while now. There was no way that I was going to be able to get out on my own. I decided since Makarov was trying to make me miserable down here, I would return the favor. I started singing the song that gets on everyone's nerves at the top of my lungs. After about two minutes of screaming the song at the top of my lungs, I was met with a chorus of shut up's from upstairs. That didn't stop me though. I just kept singing.

After another minute of my screaming, Makarov came thundering down the stairs.

"Will you shut up?" he asked severely annoyed.

"Nope," I said with a smug smile on my face.

Makarov sighed and headed for a cabinet. Hopefully there weren't any guns in there.

"If you won't shut up, then I will make you," he said as he pulled some duct tape off the roll.

My eyes got about as big as grapefruits.

"I know you're about to tape my mouth shut," I glared.

Makarov had a devious smirk on his face. He ripped the piece of duct tape off the roll without any type of cutting utensil. Jeez he was strong. I couldn't even do that yet.

I struggled against my binds again so that Makarov couldn't tape my mouth. Duct tape hurt when someone ripped it off. Knowing Makarov, which I think I did, he would rip it off as fast as he could when he wanted me to talk.

"Please don't put tape on me," I begged.

"Are you going to stop?" he countered.

I gave up.

"Fine, you win..."

Makarov put the duct tape away, pulled up a chair, turned it around, and sat down in front of me.

"What do you want?" I asked.

Makarov just stared at me.

"Dude! Why the hell are you staring at me?" I asked. It was freaking me out.

Makarov put his elbow on the back of the chair and propped his chin on his fist.

If I could have, I would have slapped Makarov in the face.

I felt like I was staring in the eyes of a terrorist. Oh wait, I was.

His eyes were starting to freak me out now. One was green and the other was blue. I really wanted to ask him what was up with that.

"Hey Makarov?" I asked.

"What?"

Finally, he speaks!

"How come your eyes are different colors?" I asked.

"I have a disease," he replied flatly.

"What kind of disease?" I asked.

"One that affects the color of my eyes."

"Ha ha smart Alec," I muttered.

"Its none of your business," Makarov said.

"Can a kid just be curious?" I asked out loud.

Makarov rolled his eyes.

"Speaking of curoius."

I groaned. This wasn't going to be much fun.

"What were you doing outside my safehouse?" Makarov asked.

"Hm," I said as I pretended to contemplate his question. "What could I possibly be doing outside your safe house?" I asked sarcasticly.

Makarov glared me.

"We can do this all night if you want," he said.

I rolled my eyes. I knew there was no way Makarov was going to stay down here and try to interrogate me all night.

"What were you doing, and why were you alone?"

"I was alone?" I asked. I knew I was walking around, but I didn't really remember what had happened considering they hit me in the head.

It was starting to come back to me know though. The rest of my team was there. What had happened to them? Did they escape? Did they pack up and leave once they discovered I was missing.

"We have sights on helicopter, Makarov," someone said from upstairs.

Makarov cursed in Russian under his breath. He rushed up the stairs and flicked off the lights.

"Again with the lights though? Really?" I yelled up. I wasn't liking the whole being tied up and left in the dark thing.

After about thirty minutes, or at least I assumed it was, because I didn't have a watch and I didn't see a clock, Makarov came back down.

"Is it my team coming to rescue me?" I asked.

"Lucky for me it wasn't," Makarov said.

I sighed.

"Are you ever going to untie me anytime soon?" I asked.

"You still haven't told me what I want to know."

I rolled my eyes.

Makarov started to walk around me. I felt like he was a hawk circling his prey.

"I'm not going to ask this again. What were you doing around my house?" Makarov asked angriliy.

I started humming to myself.

Makarov slapped me across the face.

"What were you doing here?"

"You can do what you want to me. I won't tell you," I growled.

"I am trying not to hurt you and you are making it extremely difficult."

"Since when did you get a soft spot for me?" I asked.

"I don't like hurting kids," Makarov said looking down.

"It didn't stop you from killing all those kids at the airport," I said.

Makarov looked away.

"Just because I did it doesn't mean I enjoy it."

The possibilty that Makarov could have a soft side was scary.

"Tell me why you were here and I will untie you," Makarov said getting into my face.

I glared at Makarov.

"Do you realize if you do untie me, I would kick your ass in a heartbeat and get out of here?" I asked.

Makarov hit me as hard as he could in my face. I could feel my nose break in contact. Blood started gushing down my face.

"Unless you have a death wish, you would think twice about trying to kill me."

"I did think about it. Then I thought about it again. Last time I checked. That was twice," I retorted.

Makarov wound up and punched me as hard as he could in the stomach. It knocked the wind out of me, and I was pretty sure I was going to have a bruise later.

Makarov pulled me up as best he could considering I was tired to a chair and leveled me to his eye level.

"What are you doing here?" Makarov growled between clenched teeth.

"Spying. What else would I be doing here?" I asked.

Makarov was silent. He let me go, and I sorta fell back down in my chair to the floor.

"Hey Makarov?" I asked.

"What?" he snapped.

"What do you look for in women?" I asked.

Makarov stared at me like I had just lost my mind. Considering he was probably crazy, that was a bad thing.


	16. Chapter 16

"_What do you look for in women?" I asked._

_Makarov stared at me like I had just lost my mind. Considering he was probably crazy, that was a bad thing._

"What did you just ask me?" Makarov asked.

"You heard me. What do you look for in women?" I asked again.

"Where did that come from?"

"I don't know. It just popped in my head."

"I'm not answering that," Makarov said crossing his arms over his chest.

"And since you're not answering, that makes me curious. Why, is it that embarrassing?" I asked.

"Then you are just going to have to be curious, because I am not going to answer that, and no it's not embarrassing, it's just none of your business," Makarov said agitated.

"Aw, come on. What's it going to hurt to tell me? I'm just a kid."

"A kid with a lot of power."

I shrugged.

"Eh, it comes with the job," I said.

Makarov started pacing.

"Thinking about how you're going to answer me?"I asked.

"No, I'm thinking of the best way to interrogate you so that you will break," Makarov said.

"You're really worse at this than I thought you were," I said.

"Shut up."

I shut up. Not because I was actually listening to Makarov, but I was starting to get really bored.

"Why were you spying on me?" Makarov asked after a long silence.

"Cuz I can. Why else?" I asked.

"This is not very amusing," Makarov told me.

"I never said it was," I said staring him straight in the eye.

Makarov growled.

"Why are kids so stubborn? They're worse than adults," Makarov said to himself.

"I can still hear you."

Makarov ignored me, obviously thinking of what else he could do to make me talk. I think I knew why he didn't use a knife or a gun. That would get messy. If they all had to leave the safe house in a hurry, and there wasn't any blood, that would reduce the amount of clean up that had to be done and also reduced that chance of anyone being held hostage, like myself being rescued.

Makarov walked up behind me, and instead of hitting my again like I thought he was about to do, he connected something to the rope that was keeping me tied to the chair. It was a bad moment to notice that my chair was made out of metal.

"Now you have a choice. Cooperate, and I will not electrocute you. Don't cooperate, or be too cheeky, and I will, and it will only get worse every time," Makarov said with a mischievous smirk on his face.

I sighed. I was about to be in for a world of hurt.

"Why were you spying on me?" Makarov asked.

I was silent. I was bracing myself to get the hell shocked out of me.

"Last chance to answer."

I was still silent. I didn't need any extra shocks for my cheekiness, and I was having a hard time holding it back.

I heard a click and felt the shock go through my body. I could barely hold back the scream that was building in my throat. It hurt like hell and made me feel like I couldn't move afterwards. If he kept this up, I probably would end up paralyzed.

"Why are you here?" Makarov growled. He didn't even give me a chance to answer before he shocked me again with even more volts.

I couldn't hold back the scream of pain this time. It was so loud that it echoed around the room.

"It's only going to get worse from now on. Answer me or I will electrocute you again," Makarov threatened darkly.

"I'm not telling you anything, you bastard," I spit out.

He shocked me again, at yet another higher voltage. I was on the verge of passing out.

"Why are you here?" Makarov asked me. He sounded like he was really far away instead of being next to me like he really was. My vision had also started going fuzzy.

I wasn't even sure what I had said next. I knew it was a slur of something but didn't know exactly what. The last thing I felt was the electricity surging through my body before the entire world went black.


	17. Chapter 17

When I woke up, I was laying on a bed. It was nice and soft. I sat up and looked around. I was confused when I didn't recognize my surroundings. It all came rushing back to me in the form of a terrible headache. That's when I remembered that Makarov had broken my nose and electrocuted me to unconsciousness.

I got up and looked into the mirror that wasn't too far away from where I was now. I had dried blood all over my face. It was going to take me a while to get it all off. Well, better get started while no one knew I was up. I tip toed as quietly as I could in the hallway with my combat boots on. I found the bathroom quickly. It was small, but it had a towel and a sink. I washed the blood off of my face and noticed something that didn't exactly make my day.

"Oh great," I muttered. "My nose set crooked."

I wasn't too happy about it, but I rebroke my nose after a few painfully attempts. I didn't know how hard it was to break you own nose on purpose.

After resetting my nose, and cleaning up all the blood, I decided to head downstairs.

I wasn't tied to the chair anymore, so I took it as a sign of freedom. I walked down the steps, and just looked around. I wasn't looking for anything specific, but just looking around.

I was about to pass into the next room, when something black and shiny caught my eye. I backtracked for a second and looked again. I could barely believe what I saw. It was a baby grand piano sitting right in front of me. I walked over to it and touched the keys. Hopefully no one would notice if I started playing.

I stroked one of the keys. It was perfectly I tune, like it had just been tuned yesterday. I was jealous. I couldn't even afford a piano for my house, whenever I was there, but of course Makarov had one. A really nice one at that.

I sat down on the bench. It was really comfortable. I scooted up closer to the piano. Then bench was heavy, which made me think that there was sheet music inside of it.

I started playing River Flows in You by Yiruma. It was the only song that I could still remember how to play after a month of not practicing.

After the last note, I stood up to walk around some more. As I turned, I nearly walked right into Makarov.

"Who gave you permission to play that?" Makarov asked slightly annoyed. He sat down on the bench and closed to the lid to the piano.

"No one, I just started playing," I said crossing my arms over my chest.

"I didn't know you knew how to play," Makarov said softening up some and removing the lid off of the piano again.

"You never asked," I said leaning against the wall.

The room was silent for a few minutes.

Then the room was filled with the sound of Makarov playing Moonlight Sonata.

My jaw nearly hit the floor.

I didn't think Makarov was the one that knew, or at least attempted to play piano.

Makarov finished playing and turned around.

"What?" He asked seeing my with my mouth still open.

"I didn't know you could play piano," I said in disbelief.

"You never asked," Makarov said repeating me.

"When'd you start playing?" I asked.

"When I was seven. When did you start?" Makarov asked me.

"I just started a while ago," I answered.

"And you can already play that?"

Many people didn't know it, but I had been playing way before that.

Makarov stood up.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Why, are you going to follow me?"

"I don't know, it depends on where you are going," I said.

Makarov started walking away, and I started following him.

He walked into what I assumed was a living room, and sat down on a black leather couch. I sat down next to him. He grabbed a remote and turned on the 72 inch T.V.

I had no idea what was on, but it had amazing quality. I was pretty sure it was 1080 pixels.

Makarov had noticed that I was just staring at the T.V.

"What are you gawking at now?" Makarov asked slightly annoyed.

"That T.V. is awesome."

Makarov rolled his eyes and put his feet up on the coffee table. He flipped to some random channel where they only spoke Russian.

"Ok, so what's going on?" I asked completely lost. I didn't even know what show this was.

"I thought you spoke Russian," Makarov said.

"Not a word."

Makarov flipped through the channels until he stopped on something I could recognize no matter what language it was in.

"Awesome, I love football."

"Look who is playing," Makarov said pointing to the screen.

"Yes! The Eagles are winning!" I exclaimed bouncing in my seat.

"Most unfortunately," Makarov teased.

"Ew, you like the cowboys?" I asked.

"Yes I do. Do you have a problem with that?" He asked.

"Yes I do. The Cowboys, or should I say Cowgirls, really suck.

"You won't be so happy when we win the Super Bowl this year," Makarov said looking smug.

"Whatever," I said waving him off and turning my attention back to the game.


	18. Chapter 18

"Why are you still following me?" He asked.

"Because I can," I said.

Makarov slammed a door in my face. I realized I had just followed him to the bathroom.

"Ok, didn't mean to follow you in there," I said walking away. I was looking for the nearest door. I was going to try to pick the lock and disarm the security system. I wasn't going to stay here longer than I needed to. I had just found the base for the security system when I heard the toilet flush. I ran as fast as I could back to the couch, and just landed as Makarov opened to the door to sit back down next to me.

We watched the game for another 15 minutes until it was over. The Eagles absolutely crushed the Cowboys. It was a really pathetic game for the Cowboys. Makarov got up and wondered somewhere around the house. I walked back over to the security system. I looked to make sure there weren't any cameras around. As long as I didn't see any, I was safe. I took the screwdriver I always kept close to me out and took the cover off of the alarm. It had so many wires in it. Makarov was right. This wasn't going to be very easy. But just because it wasn't easy didn't mean that I wasn't going to at least try it.

I looked at all of the wires, and saw what they were all connected too. One of them was long. Very long. I pulled on one end, and it lead me to a computer. I wiggled the mouse to see if it was on. It was, but the computer was locked. Hm… Now I f I was Makarov, what would I make my computer password? I entered the first thing that came to mind, and it worked. I looked around in the computer to see if it had any software for a security system. I couldn't find it anywhere, which was weird. Something that complicated would have to be installed into a computer, or else it work. I searched some more, but still came up with nothing.

"Now would be the perfect time for Ghost to pop up and crack this in his sleep," I said to myself.

But I was alone. And it didn't seem like my team was going to come back for me. That made really feel hopeless. If I did manage to escape this safe house, then I would be stuck wondering around in Russia until I either died of hunger, thirst, or by an unfortunate bullet from an Ultranationalist. I put my screwdriver away, and momentarily gave up on the system. I walked around for a while. I went back up the stairs, and just let my feet carry me. I walked into what looked to be Makarov's room. It was pretty plain compared to the rest of the house. A bed, a dresser, and a small T.V. were the only things in here. I looked through the dressers to see what I would find. I wasn't sure about other people, but my dresser was full of papers telling me how to work various things on my computer. I felt around in one of the drawers, and I felt something hard and rectangular. I pulled it out. It was my radio.

"Now I might actually be able to be saved," I said to myself.

I looked through the rest of the drawers, and found the rest of my stuff. I put my vest on underneath of my shirt, and put my pistol on my hip. I was going to have to leave my other gun because it was going to be too noticeable to carry around.

I flipped the switch on my radio, and it crackled to life. I turned the volume down. How the hell did it get turned up all the way. I flipped through the channels until I got to one that had very little static. I heard someone end a sentence, but I wasn't sure who it was, or what they were talking about.

"Sir, we need to look for her before she winds up dead," Someone said. It sounded like Ghost.

"I know Ghost, but Shepherd isn't letting us go back," a person with a Scottish accent said. I would know that accent anywhere.

"Who said we needed Shepherd's approval? We only need a way of getting there and back, and as long as no one know s we're gone, then what's it gonna harm?" Ghost asked.

"So when exactly are you all gonna come rescue me?" I asked.

"A.J.!" Soap and Ghost exclaimed at the same time. They both started saying different things at the same time so it got really lost.

"Woah," I said. "Slow down then try that again."

They both laughed, then Soap went first.

"We're going to get you out of there as soon as possible," He said.

"Yeah, just hang in there, and try not to let Makarov get to you too much," Ghost said.

"Well then, you better hurry up before he does something really annoying," I said.


	19. Chapter 19

"Well then, you better hurry up before he does something really annoying," I said.

They both went to work trying to figure out how to get me out. I put my radio in a place Makarov wouldn't think to look, and a place where I wouldn't lose it, then headed back downstairs. I was starting to get pretty hungry, so I went to the kitchen. I opened up the refrigerator, and all I saw were vodka bottles.

"What the hell? Where is all the food?" I asked myself.

"You're in the wrong kitchen if you are looking for food," someone said behind me. I jumped and hit my head on the top of the refrigerator.

"Damn it Makarov, give me some warning if you're going to sneak up on me like, sheesh," I said rubbing my head.

Makarov rolled his eyes. He seemed to be doing to a lot lately.

"Follow me," he said walking off in a different direction. I followed him. My stomach had started growling so loudly, you could hear it from across a room.

"Please tell me you can cook, because you need to feed yourself before you eat me," Makarov said as he lead me into another kitchen.

"Yes, I can cook, and no I am not going to eat you. You probably wouldn't taste too good anyway.

Makarov left with an annoyed sigh, and I looked around to see what was here. I found quite a few steaks, some seasoning, and a pan.

"Looks like I'm having steak," I said.

I went to the stove to turn it on. I looked at it for a few good minutes. I had no idea what it said.

"I know I'm in Russia, but could at least one think be in English?" I asked myself. I couldn't figure out how to turn the stove on. It was all in Russian. I tried twisting the knob, but it wouldn't budge. I was afraid to push any buttons, because with my luck, something would explode. I kept looking around the kitchen until I found I what I really wanted to eat.

"Yay, Frosted Flakes are still the same here!" I exclaimed. I got a bowl and a spoon and got the milk out of the refrigerator. I poured myself some cereal, and went back to watch some T.V. while I ate it. Makarov wasn't in the room, so I decided to flip through the channels till I found one I like. It wasn't long till I found Spongebob, and bonus, it was in English. I put my feet up on the table and ate my cereal.

Then Makarov came back.

"Why did you change the channel?" He asked.

"Because I absolutely can't stand Soap Operas," I said not removing my eyes from the screen.

Makarov sat down next to me again.

"I don't see how you can watch this," He said.

"Easy, I'm a kid."

"But you are in the military."

"And you are a global terrorist who watches Soap Operas."

"Point taken," he said in defeat.

There was the sound of helicopter blades above the safe house.

"Get to the basement," Makarov said getting off the couch and grabbing an RPG.

"What are you going to do with that?" I asked not moving.

"Get to the basement and stay there," Makarov said pushing to the stairs and closing the door.

I could only hope that wasn't Soap and Ghost, and if it was that they were really good at dodging.


	20. Chapter 20

I was in the basement for quite some time, and it was really dark. By the way Makarov grabbed an RPG and shoved me into the basement, it could only be Soap and Ghost. I knew they could take care of themselves, but some people had some really good aim with RPGs. Even if they were really inaccurate.

"Hey, kid. Are you down here?" I heard a familiar Scottish voice ask.

"Soap is that you?" I asked back.

"Where the bloody hell are you? I can't see a thing down here," he complained flipping a light switch.

"Are you alright?" I asked running up and hugging Soap.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But I do have to admit that I've seen you in better shape before," Soap commented. He must have been referring to my nose. Once you break your nose, you will never get it to be perfectly straight anymore.

"Hurry it up sir. Makarov's gonna be after us soon if we don't get out of here," Ghost yelled down the stairs.

"Come on kid," Soap said turning to run up the steps. I followed close behind him. I didn't have any protective gear, or a gun to protect myself with, so I stayed close behind Soap.

"The chopper is just ahead of us. Hurry," Ghost said running faster.

We sprinted about as fast as we could toward the chopper, and Nikolai lifted off just as I stepped on.

"Where to my friends?" Nikolai yelled over the sound of the blades.

"Just get us somewhere safe," Soap responded sitting in one of the chairs.

Apparently somewhere safe was back at the base.

"A.J.!" Archer and Roach both yelled as they ran up to me and hugged me.

"I missed you all too. Now let go before I die of suffocation," I said.

They let go.

"We thought something happened to you," Roach said.

"Well no duh. I was gone for how long now?" I asked sarcastically.

"What happened to your nose?" Archer asked now just noticing it.

"Got broken. Now I'm going to go to sleep in a real bed. I'm exhausted," I said stretching.

"Night kid," Roach and Archer said together walking toward the Rec Room. I made my way toward the barrack.

When I entered, it was completely empty. It would be nice to finally have some peace and quiet where I was safe, or at l could at least protect myself. I crawled out of my combat boots, and put on some clean clothes. I was too tired to take a shower. I could take one in the morning. It wasn't like I was doing anything anyways.

"Make sure you get a good night's sleep," Price said poking his head in the door.

"Why?" I asked.

"You have school in the morning," Price said as he closed the door so I wouldn't throw anything at him.

"Well this really sucks," I said. I didn't do any of my homework. I was starting to wonder if they would accept my excuse of being help captive and tortured in some far away country. It's not like I was lying.

I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, and I don't think I moved once that week.

"Rise and shine kiddo. Time to get a move on," someone above me said.

I muttered something incoherent.

"Come on, you can't be late today," the person said again. I recognized it to be Roach.

I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

"You slept like the dead last night. It didn't even look like you were breathing," he said leaning against the bunk.

"Well I was obviously breathing, or else you would have had a much harder time waking me up," I said stretching. All of my joints cracked from being in the same position for so long.

"Well hurry up and get ready, or else you'll be late," Roach said turning to leave.

"Whatever," I muttered.

Roach's hand was on the door handle.

"Oh and Roach?" I called.

"Yeah?" he asked pausing.

I threw my pillow full force at his face, and I did not miss.

"Ow, what was that for?" He asked slightly annoyed.

"For waking me up," I said heading for the bathroom.

I took a quick shower and fixed my hair. It had grown out a lot since I had last really looked at it. Last time it barely could touch my shoulders, and now it was down past my shoulder blades. I pulled it up into a ponytail, and headed down to the Mess Hall.

"Morning A.J.," Archer said as I sat down next to him.

"Hey," I replied still feeling half asleep.

"Ready for school?"

I rolled my eyes. "What time is it?" I asked.

"About 7:15," Archer told me looking at his watch.

"And of course right after I sit down I have to leave again," I complained getting up and grabbing my bag. It was still packed from whenever I had went to school last so I didn't have to worry about forgetting anything. I got an USP and some extra rounds from the armory, and loaded all of my stuff into the truck.

"Today is going to be a living hell. I can just feel it," I said to myself as I climbed into the passenger seat.


	21. Chapter 21

"Today is going to be a living hell. I can just feel it," I said to myself as I climbed into the passenger seat.

"Ready?" Soap asked as he shook me awake. We were pulling into my school's driveway already.

"Wha?" I asked still trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes.

Soap parked and let me out. I grabbed my book bag and walked in. A lot of my friends were here already.

"MEGAN!" Jackie screamed as she tackle hugged me. I was ready for it this time, so she didn't knock me down.

"Hey," I said as I hugged her back. I sat at my usual spot at the table. At least it was my usual spot when I was there.

"You need to stop missing school," she commented sitting across from me.

"It's not like I'm trying to miss it. It just happens."

"You have a lot of stuff to make up."

"No I don't. I don't have to make up anything. Whenever I'm out, the school just says I did it and gives me my average on the assignment. It's a great way to keep my grades up."

"Lucky," Jackie glared.

I laughed. Then the bell rang. We went to our classrooms to get our stuff for patrol duty. I wondered how many 3rd graders there would be to attack me with a hug.

Apparently all of them. I was buried under a pile of 3rd graders for a few minutes until my friends managed to get them all off of me.

"Are you alright?" Jackie asked helping me up.

"Yeah, fine," I replied brushing the dirt off of my pants.

"There's something you don't see every day," she said.

"Is there one day where I can just be a normal kid with a normal life? Nothing out of the ordinary happening just an average day?" I asked to no one in particular.

"At least you get to do stuff every day. If I even thought about going near a gun my parents would kill me. Forget joining the military," she complained.

"Like I told you last month, once you turn 18 you can do whatever you want, and they can't make you do anything anymore," I told her.

The bell rang for us to take the kids inside. I took 3rd grade to their room and headed back to my room.

Everyone attacked me with a hug.

"Let go I can't breathe!" I exclaimed.

Everyone let go and all tried to have a conversation with me at once.

All I heard was, "We heard what happened in Russia, are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I said shrugging them off.

Our teacher came in and we all took our seats. Surprisingly, the rest of my day was relatively normal. At least until it was time for me to go back to the base.

"Hey kid," Soap said as I was stepping out of the truck.

"Hey," I said practically dragging my book bag.

"You look tired," he commented.

I rolled my eyes and kept walking for the barracks.

Soap decided to follow me.

"Soap, did you know that the last person that followed me around lost a finger?" I asked walking a bit faster.

Soap walked in the other direction.

I put all my stuff away and sat on my bed. I honestly had no idea what to do right now. I didn't have any homework to do, and I never studied for any tests.

"You look really bored right now," Archer said as he came in.

"What is with everyone pointing out the obvious today?" I asked in slight annoyance. I know I looked bored. Ok, move on.

"Sorry Miss Touchy," Archer said in a hurt voice.

I looked at him.

"Really?" I asked.

Archer got up and left. I headed for the Mess Hall.

I got in and smelled something awesome.

"And she's gonna go off in 5, 4, 3, 2…" Someone counted down

"OH MY GOD IT'S TACO NIGHT!" I screamed running for the line. All I heard was laughter behind me.

I didn't eat anything for lunch, so I got four overstuffed tacos.

"Again, you're not even that big. How the bloody hell are you going to eat all of that?" Ghost asked as he sat down next to me.

I didn't have time to answer. I was already busy stuffing my face.

Soap, Roach, and Price sat down around me as well.

Soap and Roach started laughing when they saw me. Price however wasn't so amused.

"You need to learn some manners kid," He said unrolling a fork and a knife.

I swallowed. "I do have manners. I just chose whether or not I use them," I said. Then I continued to stuff my face.

About twenty minutes later, I finished my four tacos and second helpings of two more, I was finally stuffed.

Ghost poked my stomach.

"Eh," I complained stretching.

"Oh goodness, please don't puke all over the place," Ghost said inching away from me.

"If you'd quit poking me, then I won't," I said.

"Well, we all need to get to bed. We have a long day tomorrow," Soap announced getting up.

"Eh, do I have to move?" I asked. I was so full that I couldn't move an inch.

"Alright kid," Soap said picking me up. He carried me all the way to the barracks. He put me in my bed and I was asleep just before my head hit the pillow.


	22. Chapter 22

I woke up pretty late the next day. It was Saturday, so I didn't have to go to school. I sat up and stretched out my back. I had also heard that it was going to be a pretty lazy day. There wasn't much to do, and Price wasn't going to make us do any drills or exercises. I finally got out of bed and started wandering around the base. I didn't go to the Mess Hall because I wasn't too hungry. I decided to head over to the target range, since I heard someone shooting over there.

"Hey Soap," I greeted. "What's up?"

He laid his rifle down.

"Just shooting the crap out of this target," He replied. I looked down the range. I was trying to figure out what he was still shooting at, because there wasn't much left of the target at this point.

"Ugh, we all need to go do something today," I complained.

"You got any suggestions?"

I thought about it for a minute.

"Nope, none," I said.

"Well, you're a lot of help," Soap said starting to break down his rifle so he could go through his usual ritual of cleaning it spotless.

"It's not my fault I get bored easily," I complained.

Soap finished cleaning his rifle, and carried it back to his barrack. I followed him out of sheer habit.

"What is with you and following me everywhere?" He asked.

"I don't just follow you, I follow everyone," I said.

"Why?"

"I really have no idea. I did it even when I was younger. I was always following someone around."

Soap shook his head, and sat down on his bed. I sat down on Ghost's just to annoy him. He hated it when people sat on his bed. Even if he didn't see them, he always knew.

"We should go bowling!" Soap exclaimed quite randomly.

"Oh jeez," I said face palming. This was going to be very interesting.


	23. Chapter 23

_**A/N: I'm sorry for the really long time it took to update this. I've been really really busy with school work, and barely had anytime for myself. It didn't help that I've recently burnt my hand either. I'll try to update sooner than the last time, but I can't make any promises. Anyways, kick back, relax, and enjoy the funny. :D**_

I would love to say the drive over was uneventful, but being the 141, of course it wasn't.

"Roach, if I have to tell you one more time to put that god damned shoe on, I'm kicking you out of the truck!" Soap exclaimed as the smell of feet, rotten eggs, and raw sewage permeated the truck.

"Oh my god Roach! What the hell is wrong with you? Do you ever wash those things that do NOT deserve to be called feet?" I asked outraged. The smell was making me a bit nauseous.

"Yeah I do, but they get sweaty in those boots," Roach said putting his boots back on. Even with all of the windows rolled down all the way, it took forever for the stink of Roach's feet to finally go away.

"NEVER do that again," I said poking my nose out from my shirt to test the air. It smelled like it was safe.

"Come on, it wasn't that bad," Roach said.

Everyone glared at Roach, even MacTavish turned around from the drivers sheet.

"Don't look at me Captain, pay attention to the road!" Roach exclaimed as we passed a car a little bit too close for comfort.

We eventually got to the bowling alley in one piece, and Soap helped me get my balls from the back of the truck. I had to drag the bag in, because the wheels were long past needing to be fixed.

The alley was crowded, which I expected, but I could see a few clear lanes, and it didn't look like they were being reserved. We headed over to the main desk. The lady looked a little freaked out when she saw 6 guys and one kid, put she put on a smile real quick. It wasn't the first time someone had called the police on us.

"Do you have any free lanes tonight?" Ghost asked in that "charming" way he did whenever he was around a female that wasn't me.

She had to blink to get back her train of thought. "Oh, yes, how many do you need?" She asked cheerfully.

"Just two, then we can split up into teams," I told her.

My words went on deaf ears though. She wasn't paying any attention to anyone but Ghost.

"Two lanes would be perfect," Ghost said grabbing her attention with every word.

"Right away sir," she said ringing up the price. "Will you need shoes for tonight?"

No one except me had really been bowling much before this, yet everyone had their own shoes, which I found slightly creepy.

"No, just the lanes," Ghost replied.

Ghost paid for the lanes, and we set up our stuff. Everyone but Roach and I were using 16 pound balls.

"Don't you think it's a good idea to use a lighter a ball since you've never been bowling before?" I asked Roach as he started eyeing the 16 pound balls. I was only using a 12 and a half.

"But everyone else is using a 16 pound ball," Roach complained.

"Yeah, cuz they've all been bowling at least once, and they know what they are doing. And they aren't as clumsy as you are.

"I'm not clumsy!" Roach exclaimed.

"Then why is your call sign Roach?" I asked.

Roach looked down.

"You can use a 16 pound ball if you really want, but if you let it go backwards, and it hits me, then I WILL hurt you, understand?" I asked getting on my tip toes to try to look Roach straight in the eyes. I was still a few inches short.

Roach eyes widened and he went straight to the rack with the 13 pound balls and chose one of them.

Roach and I headed back to the table, and I changed my shoes. They were black with sky blue stripes on the side, and I loved them. I got my purple finger tip ball out and started polishing it. It had a white saxophone on one side. It represented my love of music. Normally when I went bowling with my friends, I would always be listening to music.

"Hey A.J., where did you get that ball? I didn't see any fancy one's on the rack," Meat asked. I could tell he was just slightly jealous.

It's mine, and no Meat, you cannot use it," I said setting it on the rack. It was all shiny.

"Not cool," Meat muttered putting his ball on the rack. It looked very beat up.

"Does anyone know how to work this stupid thing?" Ghost asked extremely frustrated. It looked like he was trying to enter our names into the computer so it would keep track of your score.

"Ghost, move," I said pushing him away and typing our names in.

"How did she do that?" Ghost asked watching me type all our call signs in and starting the game.

"I honestly have to admit, I'm a bit scared," I said to Archer.

"Why?" he asked.

" I've seen you all play football, and it can get pretty ugly," I said.

"Well bowling is a non contact sport," Archer said shrugging.

"Yeah, so is golf, but I've seen tackling in that," I said.

"I can't argue with that…" Archer said looking down.

"Well, Soap, you're up first," I said turning around to get his attention. Soap picked up a blue ball, which honestly looked pretty decent to not be owned, and rolled the ball down the alley. It went straight for the gutter.

"How the bloody hell do you get it down the lane?" He muttered to himself.

I had to hold back a laugh. Soap seemed like he was good at everything, but bowling might just have been his Achilles heel.

Soap tried again, and this time, the ball made it half way down the alley before it made a sharp turn for the gutter.

"Bloody hell," Soap grumbled walking away.

Next it was Ghost's turn. He picked up his ball and got in position. He walked up and rolled his ball, and the next think I knew, there was a loud buzz, and Ghost was laying on the floor. I walked up next to him and started bursting out laughing.

"Not even going to ask me if I'm alright, are you?" He asked glaring up at me.

"Are you alright?" I just barely managed to get out in between laughs.

Ghost rolled his eyes, grabbed his ball, and carefully walked back to the starting line. As he passed over the foul line, it buzzed again.

"Hey Ghost?" I asked.

"What?"

"Do you see that black foul line right there?" I asked pointing to it.

"Oh, go sit down somewhere and wait your turn," snapped back.

I smirked and impatiently waited for my turn.

Roach's turn wasn't much better either. His ball rolled backwards, and I barely managed to dodge it before it ran into Archer's leg.

"What the bloody hell did you do that for you little bugger!" Archer yelled out grabbing his foot in pain.

"Archer! I am so sorry, I didn't mean to-,"

Roach's apology was interrupted by Archer giving him a blow to the face.

"Never! Hit me with a bowling ball again bug," he growled sitting down again. I wasn't sure if Archer was going to be able to still bowl, but he was Archer, so I wasn't too worried.

I pushed all other thought aside at that time, because it was my turn.


	24. Chapter 24

_**I'm sorry for the long week, but life has been very hectic. It should slow down really soon so hopefully I'll get more time to update. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me thus far. You are awesome **___

_I pushed all other thought aside at that time, because it was my turn._

I got up and picked up my finger tip. It was made especially for oily lanes just like this one. I could hear all of the guys behind me go silent. They knew I had more experience than they did, but they didn't know how good I actually was. I lined up and the starting point, and rolled my ball down the alley. It looked like it was only going to hit the outer edge of the pins, but curved at the last second and I got a strike. I jumped up and started doing the cabbage patch.

I turned around to sit back down, and all of the guys were just staring at me with their mouths wide open. I didn't know where it was because I got a strike, or because I was doing the cabbage patch, or just a mixture of both.

"Hey, are you all still alive over there?" I asked as I waved my hand in front of Soap's face.

He blinked.

"How the bloody hell did you do that?" He asked in disbelief.

"I said I was good," I said smirking as I skipped back to my seat.

The rest of the game wasn't as eventful, but I did come out as the winner. I got 212, and Soap came in second with a 109. No one else even came close to breaking 100.

"Bowling is the worst bloody sport that was ever invented," Ghost complained as we all loaded back into the truck.

"Oh, don't be such a sore loser," I said clapping him on the back.

"Ah, whatever," Ghost said turning away from me.

I was very surprised when we made it back to the base alive. Soap was driving, and he trapped us in a dutch oven. It was horrible. Soap had rolled all of the windows up, then blasted the heat, then let out one of the worst smelling farts in the history of history.

"Soap let me out of here before I die!" I exclaimed with my hand over my face. It wasn't doing much good.

Soap parked the car and I fell out onto the ground.

"Air!" I exclaimed. "I need air!"

Everyone rolled their eyes and went to the rec room to hang out. I followed after then once I put my bowling ball away.

"You know, it's not very often that we actually get a full day off," I said to Captain Price who decided to miss out on the bowling shenanigans.

"And soon you'll have the whole summer to help us out around the base," he said.

"That is true I graduate soon don't I?" I asked. I never really got a chance to look at a calendar, but I never knew what day it was anyway. Only thing I knew was that graduation was in less than a month.

"I think the ceremony is next week," Price said going back to his news paper.

Ok, so I only had a week left of school. Then it was summer and I would be in high school. Of course I would have to explain to all of my teachers why I never wore a uniform and why I was always loaded down with weapons, but that came with my age. But I knew high school wasn't gonna go easy on me just because I had a job. Well I think I deserve some slack. I'm keeping your country safe, the least you could do in return is not give me homework. That seemed fair. I mean it's not like I'm asking to never have to go to school again in my life.

"Did you decide who you're gonna invite?" Roach asked pulling up a chair in front of me and sitting in it backwards.

"Um…" I hesitated. I really wished I could invite everyone, but I was only given six tickets, and I wasn't allowed any more. I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but it was bound to happen.

"Did you?" Roach asked again. I knew he wanted to go really badly, so I almost instantly said he was going. Out of respect and friendship, I was going to invite Soap and Ghost, and definitely out of respect Price. That was four people right there. I wanted to invite Archer, because, well I was kinda nicknamed after him. Now that just left one ticket. I was torn on whether to ask Toad, Royce, or Meat. I didn't really want to ask Meat, just because of his very blunt personality, but I had no idea whether to ask Royce or Toad. I knew even though they didn't express much interest, they really wanted to go. They just didn't want to pressure my decision, which made it that much harder.

"For the most part I have," I said leaving it at that. I walked out of the room and headed for the trail we used for Physical Training. I ran just until I was hidden in the wood line, and sat at the base of a tree.

"Hey kid," a voice said sitting next to me. It was Archer.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked. I didn't know anyone had been following me. Then again Archer was a sniper so I guess it would make sense for me not to hear him moving.

"Just coming out here to get some fresh air. Roach took his boots off again," Archer said shaking his head.

"I really just want to take his shoes and spray a whole can of freshener down them, then soak his feet in lemon juice," I said scrunching up my nose remembering the smell all too clearly.

"Lemon juice?" Archer question raising an eyebrow.

"I read somewhere that it helps," I said.

"I love how your response to most things is I read it somewhere," Archer said with a small laugh.

I thought about it for a moment, and it was true. Then again, when I was younger I used to read a lot so I hoped some of it stuck in my brain.

"So did you decide on who you're inviting?" Archer asked changing the subject.

I groaned and rolled my eyes.

"I have one ticket, and I'm stuck between two people," I said finally.

"Who are they?"

"Toad and Royce."

"Invite Toad," Archer said. I figured he would. They were sniping partners and really good friends.

"I still have to think about it," I said.

"Well hurry it up. Papers are due tomorrow," Archer said.

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose between my finger and thumb. I was gonna have to do some serious thinking tonight.


	25. Chapter 25

_**25 chapters, can you believe it? Well, here is my latest chapter. Hope you enjoy :D **_

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose between my finger and thumb. I was gonna have to do some serious thinking tonight.

I didn't get much sleep that night. All I could think about was who I was gonna give my last ticket to.

"Alright, I've made my decision," I announced at the breakfast table.

"And?" Ghost asked waiting for me to tell him who he was going to have to deal with during the ceremony.

"I'm going to invite… Toad," I said finally.

Toad was happy, but Royce clearly wasn't. I knew he wanted to go, but I didn't think I was going to be able to deal with Royce and Meat being stupid. I thought I was entitled to have a day go at least half way the way I wanted it to.

"Ok Royce, it's not the end of the world. Now kid, go get ready for school," Soap said clapping Royce on the back.

I jumped up form my seat and ran to my bed to get my Kevlar vest. I put it out and grabbed my book bag, and was in the truck before you could say flipperdoodles.

"Excited much?" Soap asked with a raised eyebrow when he saw me in the truck all ready to go. I was usually the one making others wait.

"I just want to turn in my guest list before I change my mind," I said staring straight ahead.

"Suit yourself," Soap said turning the key to the engine.

The ride over to school was short and quiet. Soap told me to have a good day as I jumped out. I grabbed my book bag and headed inside. It was almost hard to believe that my last week of school was coming and going so quickly. Just one more week and I was out.

I headed into the office to turn in my guest list and then headed out for my patrol post.

"Megan! Jackie exclaimed when she saw me. She tackled me with a hug, but this time I was prepared for it, so I lifted her up and spun her in a circle. It was funny to listen to her squeal. I set her down and walked with her outside.

"Why does it seem like you are always gone forever?" She asked stepping outside.

"Because I usually am," I replied walking over to the third grade class. I couldn't believe that I was about to leave them forever. It made me a bit sad. That honestly had to be y only soft spot. Little kids.

"SQUISHY!" They all exclaimed when they saw me. Then they ran up and basically dog piled me. It was really funny to watch.

I watched third grade for a while and took them inside when the bell rang. The teacher was already in the room, so I left and headed to mine. I came in when they were saying the pledge of allegiance in Spanish. I knew most of it so I said what I could, but then the teacher just got ridiculously fast with it so I gave up and just went to my seat when it was over. He took role once everyone settled down some, and then just left. Usually when a teacher just left a class, especially mine unattended like that, it usually wasn't a good sign, and boy was I right. The teacher brought in the principal. And she did not look to happy to see us.

I was honestly getting annoyed with it. Every time I managed to come to school in one piece, the principal always had something to yell at us for. This time it was about dating. I tuned it out because I was a solid 14 years single, and that wasn't about to change anytime too soon.

She left after about 30 minutes, and our history teacher came in. Our periods were short, so we only had 15 minutes to go over whatever it was he wanted too. I wasn't too excited, because we were learning about the geography of the world, and he was making us memorize all the countries of the world, one continent at a time. I felt like that was a waste of time for me. I had already traveled around the world. There was no point in me relearning where everything was.

The rest of the day was really quiet. The only other thing that happened out of the ordinary was that our principal came in again, but this time to talk to us about graduation and to make sure that we understood that deadlines were DEADlines. I just rolled my eyes. Trust me, I already knew how deadly deadlines could be.

I was watching the clock. School was almost over. I just spaced out until I heard the bell ring. I didn't even go to my patrol post that day. I was just way to just out of it. All I really wanted to do was go back to the base and play video games till my brain leaked out of my ear. Well, then again maybe not that long cuz I did need my brain, but I knew none of my homework was gonna get done tonight. Then again, I didn't have to do it if I didn't want to so there was no problem there.

I gathered all my stuff, which wasn't much, then went outside and stood there until I saw the truck pull into the parking lot.

"Hey kid, did you get out early?" Ghost asked slightly confused. Usually he'd be the one waiting for me. Not the other way around.

"No, I just didn't go to my patrol post," I replied leaning my head back on the rest and closing my eyes. Even though I didn't do anything today, I sure was tired.

"So how was your day?" Ghost asked.

"Eh, it was alright. More boring than anything. I don't see why I have to go. I honestly can say I know everything already.

"It's really just to show that you're there, because you're out more than anyone else," Ghost explained.

"I know that. I'm probably out more than all of them combined. But all this school does is get you ready for high school, and all high school does is get you ready for college, and all college does is get you ready for the real world and your job. Well, I already have a job, and I'd say I'm pretty good at it. I don't need training from a school. They can't teach you how to dodge a bullet or shoot a gun. Hell, guns aren't even allowed, I have to have special permission to carry it around with me, so I don't get my ass shot off," I vented.

Ghost was silent through the whole thing, so I could get it out. Every once in a while some random frustration would vent up inside of me and I just let it out almost as explosively and unexpectedly as a volcano.

"Feeling better?" Ghost asked once he was sure I was done ranting.

"Yeah, much better. It feels good to finally get that off of my chest."

"Good, then let's go," Ghost said backing out of the parking space and heading back towards the base.

I fell asleep on the ride over, so it was especially quiet.

Ghost woke me up when we arrived. I got my book bag out and threw it somewhere in the Rec room, and plopped down on the couch.

"Ok, just come in like you own the place," Roach said walking to the couch and sitting on the end.

I stuck my tongue out at him, and he did it back.

"Roach stop acting like a 3 year old," Soap scolded while walking in.

"But, sir, she did it first," Roach accused pointing at me.

"I don't care who started it, be the adult and finish it."

"Yes sir…" Roach grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Sir, we've got a problem," Ghost announced rushing through the door.

"What is it Ghost?" Soap asked slightly annoyed. He must have been as tired as I was at having to run all over the world to stop the same group of people. I was starting to wonder how they got around so fast.

"The Ultranationalists are stirring up trouble over in Hungary."

"When the bloody hell did they get over there?" Soap asked.

"Who knows sir, but we're needed over there now," Ghost said leaving to go get his gear.

"You heard the man, let's go," Soap said sighing and following Ghost to get his gear as well.

I groaned.

"What's wrong kid?" Roach asked.

"Did I not just get back from doing only God knows what in Russia?" I asked.

"Uh… yeah?"

I groaned again and got up. I was not looking forward to this. I barely knew where Hungary was. All I knew was that it was somewhere in the middle of Europe.

I walked out the Rec room, and to my bed. Sometimes if I was really lazy, I would keep a separate gun, and set of grenades in my barracks. I have to admit, it really did come in handy for times like these. I picked them up and attached the grenades to my vest. I gave one last mournful look at my bed and headed out to the chopper. Everyone was already on board.

"Does anyone even know Hungarian?" Archer asked as I sat down next to him.

We all started looking around. If none of us knew Hungarian, then we were in for a big mess.

"Well maybe they will understand Russian," Nikolai said hopefully.

I was hoping for that too. But that also meant that Nikolai was going to have to stay with us for the entire mission, and speaking Russian would kind of give away that we weren't from there.

"Well, let's just hope for the best, and hope we can get through this one alive," Soap said.

We all nodded in agreement. It was going to be one very long night.


	26. Chapter 26

_**Hey everyone. I'm back! Here is for a new chapter for all of you who have been impatiently waiting for an update. Hope you enjoy **_

I ran over to the armory, thinking, 'What the hell were the Ultranationalists doing in Hungary?' They were supposed to be a Russian organization. Maybe this was supposed to be a sign that they were starting to spread out. If that was the case, this wasn't good.

When I got to the armory, I grabbed a G36C with a red dot sight, which was starting to become my favorite rifle, and a few flash bangs. I strapped the flash bangs onto my vest, and ran over to the chopper. Archer, Roach, Ghost, Price, and Soap were already there waiting for me. I climbed aboard the chopper, and we took off.

"So what exactly are we going to be doing this time?" I asked. We usually had at least some Intel before a mission. Even if it was really off, or very little, it was always enough to give us some sort of a road map.

"Well, were going in to get some information of what the Ultranationalists have planned next, and see if we can put a stop to it," Soap replied.

I sighed. So basically we didn't have a game plan. Great…

Soap leaned his head against the side of the chopper, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was stressed out. All of us were. Well, I was more just pissed off than anything else. If these Ultranationalists made me miss my graduation, then they would be the first witnesses to hell freezing over.

"What part of Hungary are we going to exactly?" Roach asked. It was a good question.

Everyone turned and looked at Ghost. He was the one who announced the mission after all.

"From what Shepherd told me, they were a few miles out of Budapest," Ghost replied. "They are trafficking a lot of weapons through that area, and the civvies are starting to notice. And anyone who's been sniffing around that area, hasn't returned."

"So they've been moving weapons out to their other cells, and whenever anyone starts getting suspicious, and has a look around, they get killed?" I asked.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up," Ghost said.

"I wonder if they have any snipers," Archer thought out loud.

"Who knows? We'll just have to be real careful. Knowing them, they'll also have landmines lying around," Price replied.

Well at least now we had some more information. Not only did we have to stop the weapon trafficking, but we also had to see where the Ultranationalists were sending their supplies to. Maybe then we could knock more of their hide outs, and slowly get rid of this cell of terrorists. God knows I didn't feel like dealing with them anymore.

The rest of the ride over was quiet. Most everyone had fallen asleep, except for Soap and I. At least it was until we hit the Hungarian border.

"I'm surprised Price actually fell asleep," Soap said, eyeing the older man.

"I know right? I didn't even know he actually slept," I joked.

Soap laughed quietly.

"Hey Nikolai, what's that beeping sound?" Soap asked after a few minutes of silence.

Nikolai looked down at a screen. The beeping was coming from there.

"Hang on tight my friends, they have found us," Nikolai said gripping the controls for the helicopter tighter.

Nikolai banked hard right, and I got thrown into the side of the helicopter. Unfortunately, I also landed in Ghost's lap.

"What the bloody hell?" He exclaimed jumping awake. Between his exclamation, and the sudden movement of the chopper, the rest of the team woke up.

"What's going on?" Roach asked waking up and grabbing onto the side of the chopper so he wouldn't get thrown around.

Nikolai banked hard left, and I saw through the side of the chopper the RPG we had narrowly avoided.

"At least they only have RPG's," I said as I climbed off of Ghost's lap.

But it looked like I spoke to soon.

"They fired a javelin!" Archer said as we all watched the projectile fly towards us.

"Try to dodge it!" Roach called it.

But it was no good. Javelins tracked their targets, and didn't go off until they hit.

"We're hit!" Nikolai yelled from the cockpit.

"Try to get us down safely," Captain Price said jumping into the co-pilot's seat.

I could feel the chopper spinning out of control as we plummeted towards the earth. It took everything in me to keep my stomach, and its contents where they belonged.

When we crashed, we crashed hard, and the force of it caused most of us to pass out. I guess I could say I was lucky in saying that I managed to stay conscious.

"Is everyone alright?" Soap asked looking around frantically at the rest of his team.

"I'm good," I said sitting up and trying to get my head and the rest of my surroundings to stop spinning.

"Do you see anyone else?" Soap asked looking around in the twisted remains of the chopper.

"I think I can see Roach," I said crawling over to a pile of twisted metal. I moved it aside, and saw Roach buried beneath it.

"Roach!" I called. Can you hear me?" I tried to shake him awake. He opened his eyes groggily.

"What happened?" He asked sitting up holding his head in his hands.

"We crashed. Come on, get up. We have to go look for everyone else," I said extending a hand to Roach. He took it and I helped him up to his feet.

"I found Ghost and Price," Soap said from a few feet behind me. I turned around and sure enough he was being followed by Ghost and Price.

I saw a pile of rubble moving near my feet. I bent down to start moving it, and saw Nikolai.

"Are you alright?" I asked him as I helped him to his feet.

"I have been better and worse, my friend," Nikolai said placing his hand on my shoulder to steady himself.

"Hey, has anyone seen Archer?" I asked looking around. He was the only one of us who hadn't been accounted for.

Everyone looked around.

"I haven't seen him," Soap said.

I did a quick scan of the area around me. I didn't see any moving piles of rubble, and I didn't see anybody parts either. If Archer was buried, he was unconscious, which wasn't good, because it would be a lot harder to find him.

"Everyone split up and search and meet back here in 5 minutes," Soap ordered. There was a chorus of 'yes sir's' then all of us split up. I started digging my way through a few piles of rubble, with no success. Every pile turned out to be this way. I was about to give up when I saw everyone heading back after their search, but I decided to check out one last pile. I was about half way through the pile when I saw part of a uniform.

"I think I found him!" I called out to the rest of the team. They came running over the best they could to help me dig. Sure enough it was Archer, and he was out cold.

"Archer! Archer can you hear me? Come one, you've got to wake up!" I yelled shaking him. I barely got a response.

"Where… am… I..?" He coughed out.

"We're in the middle of Hungary. Our chopper crashed and yeah… we're here," I finished lamely.

Archer tried to sit up, flinched, and fell back into my arms. I looked down and I saw blood. So much blood.

"Oh no…" I muttered.

Soap saw the blood as soon as he approached us.

"Ghost, get over here now," Soap ordered.

Ghost made his way over to me and Archer.

"Bloody hell…" he commented. Ghost knelt down next to me and took some gauze out of his kit. He pressed it over Archer's stomach. Archer tried to pull away from the contact.

"Bloody hell, what is that?" Archer asked.

"Hydrogen peroxide. It'll clean out that wound, so we can at least get you back on your feet."

Archer winced as Ghost tried to clean out the wound. He covered the wounds with gauze, and taped them in place.

"How're ya feeling mate?" Ghost asked as we helped him to his feet.

"I've felt loads better," Archer replied. I had to admit, he was looking a lot better already. A bit more color had filled his cheeks, so he wasn't so deathly pale.

"Come on guys, we still have a mission to do. I don't know how we're getting back, but maybe if we are lucky, we can steal one of the Ultranationalists helos, and get out of here," Soap said checking his gun. He started heading south of our position.

"Since when have we ever been lucky?" I asked turning towards Ghost.

"Beats me, but I feel like the Captain has something up his sleeve," he replied as he followed after Soap. Price, Roach and Nikolai followed Ghost, and I could see Price hand Nikolai one of his pistols. I guess since Nikolai wasn't expected to go on this mission, he didn't bring a gun with him. Well, a pistol was better than nothing.

I wrapped one of my arms around Archer's waist to help steady him. He had to place a lot of his weight on me, which I wasn't used to carrying around, so it slowed me down quite a bit.

"Hey kid, are you coming?" Soap asked when he noticed that I was far behind the rest of the group.

"You tend to walk a bit slower when you have to half carry someone who's almost 200 pounds," I complained.

"I'm not that heavy," Archer said indignantly.

"Whatever," I said. "Fat ass," I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?" He asked.

"Nothing, nothing at all," I replied. I knew he could tell I was lying.

"You're going to tell me what you said later," Archer vowed.

"Sure, you keep thinking that," I smirked as I tried harder and harder to keep Archer's weight up. The more I had to carry him, the heavier he seemed to get. I could tell Archer was trying his hardest to stay up, be his stumbles became more and more frequent.

"Archer, if you need a rest, you can tell me," I said.

"No, we're already far behind the group. We need to catch up," Archer panted out. He tried to speed up, but he lost his balance and stumbled to the ground, taking me along with him.

"Not trying to be mean, but I trip on a regular basis enough as it is," I said trying to get back up.

"It's not my fault that you're clumsy," Archer teased.

I glared at him and considered leaving him there for a minute, but then I thought about what Soap would do to me. It wasn't worth it.

"Come on, I think we're almost there," I said holding out my hand to Archer to help him up again. He took it and got up and used me for support again.

"Good, I can go find a nice place to set up and camp for a while," Archer said, the relief evident on his face. I could tell he was glad that he wouldn't have to be walking anymore.

Soap and the rest of the group stopped about one hundred meters from the target building. It was kind of big, and almost reminded me of a factory without the smoke pouring out.

"Archer, you go set up where you can keep an eye out on this building. The rest of the team and I are gonna have to go get closer," Soap instructed. "Hopefully we can get in sit around and watch for a few hours to get the intel we need, and get the hell out of here."

I sighed. I was going to be in for a long night. Stake out's never went according to plan, and we still didn't know if the Ultranationalists had a helicopter. I seriously hoped they did, or else we were all going to be royally screwed.


End file.
